Travelogue

Milford SoundMilford Sound was one of the few stops on our trip that we planned well in advance. You have to, because it's probably the most popular destination on the South Island. It is, afterall, the 8th Wonder of the World - at least according to Rudyard Kipling when he visited here in the 1890s.

There is only one campground in Milford Sound at the Milford Sound Lodge and it books up quickly, so I booked it 4 months in advance. It cost $120 a night NZ dollars, which is about $70 U.S., so a bargain to be able to stay in the 8th Wonder of the World.

The most popular thing to do in Milford Sound is to take a cruise on the Sound (which is really a fjord, but I’ll explain later).

Our cruise shipThere are so many choices of cruise lines, but we chose the Small Boutique Cruise with Cruise Milford, because they have smaller boats with much fewer passengers than most of the other cruise lines. They advised that we book the first boat, which goes out at 8:30, because that is before the busloads of people arrive from Queenstown and Te Anau.

Another advantage of a small boat is that it can navigate closer to waterfalls, wildlife, and other points of interest, providing better opportunities for photography.

Eglinton ValleyBut, I’m getting ahead of myself. First we had to get there. Although the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is only about 2 hours, it took us at least 4 hours with all the stops we made along the way.

The Milford Road is a major attraction in itself, winding through Fiordland National Park with stunning views of mountains, forests, valleys, and waterfalls along the way.

Ancient Red Beech ForestOur first stop was Eglinton Valley, or better known to Lord of the Ring trilogy fans as Middle Earth, as some of the scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring" were filmed in the mountains surrounding the valley to represent the Misty Mountains.

Eglinton is a class, U-shaped glacial valley, carved out by glaciers over thousands of years. It was covered golden tussock and grasslands, providing a striking contrast with the dark mountains surrounding it.

Some Middle-Earthlings from a tour bus had beat us out into the Valley, so I just included them in my photo.

Christie FallsA little further on, we stopped at Mirror Lake, known for its reflections of the surrounding Earl Mountains in the lake when conditions are calm and the lake is still.

Our next stop was a short walk along the Lake Gunn Nature trail, which passed through an ancient beech forest of moss-covered trees. A short side path led to a stony beach on Lake Dunn.

The next and last stop we made before getting to Milford Sound was Christie Falls, also known as Falls Creek Falls. From the parking right over the bridge, it’s just a short walk back to the falls, which can be seen right from the Milford Sound Road - no effort required.

The rooty trail to the hidden fallsHowever, a tour bus driver in the parking lot told us that if we went up the trail to the left side of the falls and hiked for about a quarter mile, we would come to a hidden falls that few people knew about.

Okay, a quarter mile didn’t sound too bad, but what a quarter mile it was. We were basically hiking through a jungle up a very steep, barely marked trail, covered in roots from the surrounding trees. Those roots became my best friend because they served as handholds to get up, and later down, this ridiculous trail. Unlike Christie Falls there was much effort required, but it was worth it.

The hidden fallsContinuing on, we came to the most challenging part of the road to Milford Sound - the Homer Tunnel. It’s single lane, so there is a traffic light to control which side can enter.

The tunnel is three quarter miles long with a 1-in-10 gradient, meaning for every 10 meters of horizontal distance, the tunnel rises or falls 1 meter. On the way to Milford Sound we were descending in the tunnel and on the way back we were ascending.

Homer TunnelThis combined with its single-lane width, narrowness, limited lighting, and hairpin bends immediately after exiting, makes it extremely stressful.

Herb was pretty much ready to just get to Milford Sound and park the car. Thank God, we decided to stay in Te Anau last night, rather than drive all the way here from Wanaka.

When we got to Milford Sound, it was too early to check into our campground, so we parked in the pay parking lot for cruise customers and walked the short distance to the cruise ships, so that we would know where we had to be by 8:00 tomorrow morning for our cruise.

Milford Sound from Foreshore TrailThen we took a walk on what turned out to be a very rewarding trail called the "Milford Foreshore Walk." This is where we got our first glimpse of Milford Sound’s iconic Mitre Peak, rising 5,522 feet steeply from the water.

The name “Mitre Peak” was given by Captain John Lort Stokes of HMS Acheron, when he was surveying this area for the British Crown in the 1840s, when New Zealand first became a colony of Great Britain.

Milford Sound from Foreshore TrailHe named it so because its shape reminded him of the mitre headwear worn by Christian bishops.

There was a lot of bang for our buck on this short walk. Besides Mitre Peak, there was Bowen Falls, where the Bowens River plunges from a 162-meter cliff directly into Milford Sound.

In 1990, Milford Sound was designated as a World Heritage site due to its exceptional natural beauty and significant geological and ecological features.

Calm morning for our cruiseWe walked back to the Campervan and drove to Milford Sound Lodge where we checked into our campsite, which was very lush, like in jungle lush.

After a quick dinner, we walked back to the Foreshore Trail from our campground by going along a rocky trail to Deepwater Basin, past the Milford Sound Airport, and onto the Foreshore Trail.

The smiles say it allThe Sound with the sun setting over Mitre Peak and Bowens Falls was even more lovely than this afternoon.

The next day we awoke to sunny skies - a good omen for our cruise on Milford Sound this morning. I had been tracking the weather in Milford Sound for the last 3 days, and the hourly forecast consistently showed a narrow window of sunny skies rom 8:00 am until noon today. All around it was rain.

Good morning Mitre PeakWe were very, very lucky because Milford Sound is a very wet place, renowned for its very high rainfall, which averages over 22 feet per year, making it one of the wettest inhabited places in New Zealand and even the world.

The Sound is surrounded by a temperate rainforest, meaning it experiences moderate temperatures in addition to high rainfall. That’s what makes the waterfalls so spectacular.

A little visitor to our shipWe drove back to the cruise ship passenger parking lot and walked over to the wharf where the cruise ships left from. Ours was the cute tiny one all the way on the left - well at least small compared to the larger ones docked nearby.

As I mentioned above, we had chosen the Cruise Milford “Boutique” Small Boat Cruise, because, although the ship can hold 150 passengers, they limit it to a maximum of 75, and usually that’s even smaller, especially if you go on the early morning cruise before the busloads of tourists arrive from Queenstown and Te Anau.

Stirling FallsI would estimate that our ship had about 40 passengers that morning, allowing for room along the railiings to take unobstructed photos.

One of the first things we learned aboard the ship was that Milford Sound was incorrectly named in that it is not a “sound” at all, but rather a “fjord.” Sounds are formed when a river valley is flooded by the sea, which was not what created Milford Sound.

Stirling Falls up closeIn contrast, a fjord is a narrow inlet created by glacial erosion and surrounded by steep cliffs and rock walls carved by those glaciers. So, we were more correctly on a cruise on "Milford Fjord."

Maybe it would be best to just call it by its Maori name Piopiotahi, which in Maori means “a single piopio.” A piopio is a now extinct New Zealand bird. According to Māori legend, when the demigod Māui died while attempting to gain immortality for humankind, a piopio flew to Milford Sound to mourn his passing. Thus, the name reflects this act of mourning and connects this stunning landscape to a story of loss and remembrance.

The cruise, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes took us up along the western (left) shoreline first, providing us close-up views of the very impressive Mitre Peak.

It then proceeded up the entire length of the Sound to the mouth, where it opens into the Tasman Sea. From there, we turned around and went along the eastern shoreline.

Getting a glacial facial at Stirling FallsA true highlight of the cruise was our closeup encounter with Stirling Falls, which plunges 495 feet down a steep cliff face. The falls cascade from a "hanging valley," which is a valley carved by glaciers that ends abruptly high on a mountainside, creating a dramatic effect.

Our captain brought us right up close to the falls where we could feel its spray and receive what is known as a “glacial facial.” Some of my favorite photos of our entire trip are long exposure close-ups of the water crashing into the Sound.

We then continued back to the wharf passing a few fur seals along the way.

Dinner at Pio PioThe cruise had been well worth it and I was so thankful we took the early one, because as we walked back to our campervan, it began to rain and hard. That little window of sunshine that I had been tracking for days was right on.

Later that evening we had dinner at PioPio, the restaurant at the Milford Sound Lodge. They promised world-class dining in World Heritage location. They certainly delivered. The setting was lovely, the service was perfect, and the food was delicious.

I had the Duo of Central Otago Lamb (low cooked and charred lamb rump, lamb shank rillette, parsnip foam, bordelaise sauce, wild mushroom, pureed swede, potato fondant). I am a bit embarrassed to say, but it was my first lamb, and definitely my first parsnip foam (whatever that was).

Herb had the Canterbury Duck Breast (red cabbage & apple puree, fig & port Jus, duck fat potato fondant, charred baby carrots, beetroot disks, black pudding, broccolini).

That Home Tunnel againHerb and I agreed that this was one of the best meals we had had in a long time.

That night we slept to the pitter patter of rain hitting the roof of our campervan. Very cozy.

The next morning it was still pitter pattering, but even harder, and forecast to do so for much of the day. We had hoped to take the water taxi to the Milford Track to do a hike to a waterfall today, but that didn’t sound like much fun in the rain. Plus, I was very satisfied with the incredible waterfalls we had seen here already.

So, we decided to get the challenging drive up to and through the Homer Tunnel today and spend the night in Te Anau at the same Top 10 Holiday Park we stayed in on our way into Milford Sound.