Suz and I got up extra early this morning to beat the rest of the crowds into Milford Haven, and it was still a beautiful day, though the clouds were threatening…
There is only one road to Milford Haven, and it starts at Te Anau, threads it’s way up to Knobs Flat (te he!) then into the surrounding mountains, before diving through Homer Tunnel, and man is that one scary tunnel! It was started in the 1930’s or something and is just amazing – carved straight through the heart of a mountain for no other reason that we can see than to reach a really pretty part of the world. The tunnel is hacked straight from granite and not polished off, or made smooth with concrete or anything and is all the better for it. It also dives straight down and emerges in the valley leading to the sound.
Once we got to the foreshore, we jumped straight on board a scenic cruise that takes you around the Sound (actually a fjord), and it was well worth it! The sun was still out, and the mountains on the sides of the fjord were amazing!
The boat then made a quick diversion to the right hand side, as apparently there were some dolphins there, which we weren’t meant to come within 30 metres of, so we let them come to us instead!
These were either Bottle or Common, as both exist in the Sound, but they were much bigger than the Duskie’s that we’d seen at Kaikora, brilliant fun to watch!
One of the famous peaks is ‘Mitre' Peak’ here in the Sound, and it porportadly looks like a bishops mitre…
The Maori have another name for it, which is something like ‘upstanding manhood’, most amusing!
As we sailed further out, listening to our guide tell us all about the geology of the region, as well as the flora and fauna, the sound was getting rougher and much, much windier as we approached the mouth and the Tasmin Sea, great fun!
We then turned back and headed down the right hand side of the sound where there were a couple of the permanent waterfalls (the other 1,000 or so only appear after rain, something that happens a lot in Milford, as they get over 6 metres per year!), including Sterling, which apparently makes the ladies appear 10 years younger if they are touched by the spray…
All of the women immediately ran to the bow of the boat, which the captain then obligingly parked under the fall, excellent fun watching all the girls getting drenched!
We then came back past the underwater observatory, and back into dock, still bathed in brilliant sunshine, it was lovely!
After that, we went back to the Milford Lodge to check into our room, talk about lap of luxury! Check this as a view from inside our cabin…!
However, it has just started to rain (or monsoon!), so it will be interesting to see the same picture tomorrow morning!
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