Day 4 Te Anau to Milford Sound May 22
The promised rain/snow happened overnight, fortunately for us not actually in Te Anau, though there were warnings on the road to Milford, & more later.
We went on an organised trip in a minibus, 'Trips 'n' Tramps', which Wendy Laws had recommended to me. She went on a bus which delivered the mail on the way, & so got to hear lots of local stories. Unfortunately 2 buses went today, and the mail bus, we later discovered, was the other one! It didn't matter, our driver/guide Chris was very good, & we did get to do one mail drop. She was a real Southern lady, very outdoorsy, Hilary said the right thing when she said how insignificant we felt when we made our first stop, in a wide valley surrounded by very high snow-capped mountains. It was raining quite heavily then, but not really cold. We then stopped at Cobbs something, where we saw a DVD about the avalanches which occur regularly on the Milford Road, fortunately we are too early for them! A couple in our bus were staying with one of the helicopter pilots who goes out to 'bomb' the snow to generate an avalanche deliberately, so they can try & keep the road clear, i.e. in a controlled fashion. People have some great jobs down here don't they?
We stopped at an old settlement called Gunns Camp with the mail, down a remote valley on the Hollyford River. We heard stories about the building of the Homer Tunnel, pictured above, which took many years to hack out with pickaxes in the 1930s-40s. These pioneers, not so long ago, were a different breed entirely from us Northern softies!
As you can see, it was snowing by the time we got to the Homer Tunnel. It was originally single track, and you still have to wait for your turn, but it has now been widened so it's every man for himself in avalanche season. On April 1 every year, the local youngsters race naked up through the tunnel (it's a 1 in 10), given a choice of a torch or a pair of shoes. Funnily enough, most boys choose the torch!!!
We also stopped at 'The Chasm', which we thought was one of the best bits, where a narrow fast river has formed remarkable 'sculptures' of rocks down through the narrow cleft. However, this is where we realised that our Milford Sound cruise would be taken with hundreds of Asian tourists, bussed from Queenstown, a long way in one day, since they also stopped here. Remarkably, Queenstown is only 30 odd kms from Milford Sound as the crow flies, but nearly 200kms by road. So there are plans afoot to build a gondola (long-distance cable car) over the intervening mountains and right through the National Park 'over my dead body' according to Chris. It'll be interesting to see if it ever happens.
We were a little disappointed in the actual Milford Sound cruise, probably because of the weather, which was grey and cold, but at least we could see the top of the famous Mitre Peak. The fiord was not as long as we had anticipated, & we didn't see any seals or dolphins. However, we had added on a trip to the Underwater Observatory, to our amazement the boat we were on carrying about 220 people stopped just for Hilary & I to get off! We joined 2 others down below with a very young, very knowledgeable marine biologist, and saw some fascinating fish and coral, the only place you can see black coral in NZ (it's white). A few others joined us later, but it seems a pity so few do take the option.
We all dozed on the trip back I think, there were 10 of us, mostly middle-aged/pensioners like us, but also a young French couple who were always the first to want to get back in the bus, we think they must have been from the South of France and were therefore cold!
We had our first (and only) 'posh' meal that night, just as well when I get to tomorrow, in a restaurant very close to the hostel. Expensive, well in NZ terms, $50+ each i.e. about 20 pounds for 2 courses including wine!
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