Milford (Haven) Sound

We woke nice and early for our trip to Milford Sound which was due to depart at 07:10, after an eventful night in our dorm. An English guy came back roaring drunk, aggressive and was shouting and swearing during the night; he was punching and kicking his bed shouting at his female friend “don’t tell me to hush I’ll kick your f***ing head in” – shameful behaviour, especially considering it was partly directed towards a woman whilst the rest was incoherent gibberish. We left a note at reception (it was not yet open) asking to be moved rooms as we did not feel comfortable staying in a room with such a disgraceful human being. Unpleasantness aside, we boarded a coach with a glass roof and ample leg room for our 300km drive to Milford Sound. We did not really appreciate the length of the day ahead of us until we double checked our itinerary the night before the trip, but as our bus driver told us “it’s not all about the destination with this trip, it’s about the journey”; and he was right.

We drove along a (long and) winding road that ran beside a huge lake (the longest in New Zealand), up through mountainous passes, and down through rolling hills; a beautiful drive. We stopped after two hours at Te Anau (say tea-an-ee-ow), a lovely little town upon a lake, before continuing our drive on to Milford Sound. By the time we reached Te Anau we had driven approximately 120km so we were slowly making ground.

Two more hours passed, we had a lunch break, and we were entering the Fjordland National Park; a National Park boasting fourteen fjords and numerous mountains and waterfalls – a UNESCO World Heritage site and it was easy to see why. We stopped for numerous photo breaks and in total the drive there was wonderful, and we saw so many sights including these mischievous Mountain Keas – mountain parrots – who loved having their pictures taken and generally being centre of attention. We passed through the Homer Tunnel and the surrounding area, which is always in danger of landslides and avalanches and we made it to Milford at just gone 13:00. Despite the drive being six hours or so it passed by surprisingly quickly.

When we arrived at Milford Sound we boarded a catamaran called Pride of Milford and spent the next hour and a half on a cruise through the Milford Sound. We learned the difference between a Sound and a Fjord; a Sound is a flooded river valley and a Fjord is a flooded glacier valley (something like that anyway). The cruise was lovely, the mountains carved by the movements of glaciers (it should be called Milford Fjord apparently) towered over us and made for impressive sights and we also saw two colonies of fur seals along the way. Milford Sound was actually discovered by a Welshman named John Gronow who was seal hunting and happened to come across the inlet – there are two outcrops that run at 90 degree angles to each other which has the effect of making it look like a continuous wall of rock from the Tasman Sea, which old Gronow discovered otherwise. He named the place Milford Haven at first, but this was later changed to Milford Sound in keeping with the other thirteen sounds that were in the area (one being the Doubtful Sound, an uninspiring name if ever I heard one). We took some great pictures of the waterfalls and I narrowly avoided being soaked as the boat sailed underneath one – Nicola said I scampered away. The winds were strong and as we reached the entrance to the Tasman Sea the swells became quite large, rocking the boat back and forth making it difficult to drink our complimentary tea and coffee. Throughout the cruise (and from when we entered the Fjordland National Park) the rain had been lashing down – the highest recorded rainfall in one day was over 500ml! We didn’t mind the rain though as it improved the waterfalls and added a little something to the overall atmosphere on board. The trip was one of our favourites (each new one seems to be better than the last) and we loved the day despite it being long. We would heartily recommend it to anyone if they are to be in the area.

The journey back was less eventful, less picture stops and more driving, and we were back by 19:20. There was a note waiting for us at reception – we couldn’t be moved rooms as the hostel was fully booked. We were in our room and we saw a lad lying in the bunk where all the shouting and swearing had come from during the early hours, Nicola popped to the toilet and I thought I’d have a word with him and make him apologise to Nicola for how he acted…just as I started with “Excuse me, I want to have a word with you about your behaviour last night –“ he interrupted with “I only arrived today”, and true, we checked with reception; and his accent was also different – the boorish drunk had gone, we think he was a friend of someone and not a guest as reception said the only guy there last night was Felix and the drunken oaf was referred to as “Joe”. I made an apology to the guy, it was kind of awkward, but he was nice enough and understanding after I explained the circumstances, and Nicola and I at least felt more at ease in our room and prepared to have a final comfortable night in our most comfortable to date dorm room. We had another early (ish) start in the morning so we needed a good night’s sleep.