I had a lovely, restful night’s sleep, this campsite is so
peaceful. But the weather had turned around so we couldn’t
even see the mountains that were there last night through the grey clouds and
rain. Looks like Simon has got out of
doing that three-hour hike up a mountain peak we had in mind!
Instead, we used the tactic of driving right up to the
amenities block so that we could use the kitchen to make breakfast instead of
struggling to keep dry outside. We then
decided to make use of the plugs in there to charge up some of our electrical
items whilst I caught up with some more blogging and we urged the weather to
improve. We had loads of time until our
310pm cruise so there was no point in going walking in the pouring rain just
for the sake of it.
Eventually, we decided to start making our way to Milford
sound about 1230pm, still allowing ourselves plenty of time to get there
whilst
also stopping for scenic photographs if we passed a point of interest.
Ever since seeing Kea (the only Mountain parrot in the world) in a
sanctuary on
the North Island, I had hoped to see them in the wild and today, we got
lucky. Two of them were keeping
themselves occupied in a lay-by and charming tourists by drinking out of
puddles and being generally characterful.
Another feature that many people mention about getting to
Milford is the Homer Tunnel. This is a
tunnel 1200 metres long, bored straight through the mountain side and
controlled by traffic lights as it is only one lane wide. Once you reach the far side of the tunnel the
views suddenly start to get even more dramatic.
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| Queuing for the Homer Tunnel and below, squeezing through |
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| The view down the valley once you reach the other side. |
As instructed we got to the cruise terminal twenty minutes
prior to our sailing time and waited to board our vessel, the Milford
Maiden. This was another cheap booking
we’d made via bookme.com – only $55 each for an hour and a half’s cruise with
Jucy. That’s the same company that we
stayed with in Christchurch, at the Jucy Snooze, and they also do Jucy
campervans in tasteful purple and green colours. But we’ve never managed to book one with
them, so they seem to be doing very well all round. The cruise here was on
everyone’s advisory list as a ‘must do’ and you can see why.
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| Our 'Jucy' cruise ship incoming (Mitre Peak behind it) |
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| The view of Milford Sound heading out from the quay |
We were in good time to join the queue on the
quay, so secured our spots right at the front of the upper section on the boat. Plus, we’ve gone and done it again with our
amazing luck. The wash-out this morning
has acted in our favour by creating numerous waterfalls - with all the extra
water pouring off the towering rocks around us and adding to our photographs,
as the clouds hugged the tops of the mountain ranges and the sun started to
poke through in patches of blue sky. Stunning.
From our prime position on the boat I started taking snaps
of the scenery and didn’t stop much during the whole cruise. I never went down to any of the other floors
because I didn’t want to risk missing anything.
Amongst the highlights were Mitre Peak, Sterling falls, a glimpse of the Tasman sea separating us from the South East coast of
Australia, as well as the dolphins playing in the wake of the boat and a group
of young male fur seals sunbathing on the rocks. Stunning, all round.
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| One of the playful dolphins |
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| The ship is a full size cruise liner - to assist you with scale! |
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| Lazy seal pups all round |
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| Getting up close and personal with a waterfall |
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| The view out to the Tasman Sea.... next stop Australia! |
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| I loved watching the clouds hug the mountains |
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| Falls Creek |
Back on dry land, we had some more scenic walks and
viewpoints to visit on the way back to our campground that we had saved for
when there were less people around.
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| A weka |
We
kept stopping because the views were constantly changing with the shifting
cloud formations, so it was past 630pm by the time we got back to our campsite
to make some dinner. We really were
spoilt with the view from our spot. Now
the clouds had disappeared we could appreciate the mountain view again.
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| Back at our camping spot |
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