11/14/06: Milford Sound

The plan was to go kayaking on Milford Sound first thing in the morning. We listened to a hard, wind driven rain all night. Each time I woke up, I’d check to see if it was stopping, but alas, it was not. In the morning they cancelled the kayaking due to rough water and hard rain, so we headed out to see the sound on a cruise boat. It continued raining for the first half of the cruise, then stopped.

The area the cruise took us through normally has two permanent waterfalls, but with all the rain, there were hundreds of waterfalls cascading down the sides of the peaks. Standing in the bow of the boat (away from the engines) all you could hear was rushing water from all the waterfalls. And they're very ephemeral ... once the rain stops, most of the waterfalls disappear within 3 hours.

We went out as far as the ocean (the Tasman Ocean), then came back. We caught glimpses of two small penguins and two seals. The wildlife spotting was pretty amusing as people tried to point of the tiny black and white critters on the rocks. “It’s to the left of that tall crack, by the round rock.” “What crack, and which round rock?”

The sound/fjord has a unique underwater ecosystem. The high volume of water flowing into the fjord results in a tannin-filled layer of fresh water on the top of the ocean salt water. The result is that marine plants and animals that normally only live much deeper in the darker depths of the ocean can be found at much shallower depths, making them much more accessible to divers.

After lunch, we headed for the start of one of the famous walks in New Zealand, the Routeburn Track. We hiked up as far as the Key Summit. The trail started in tall beech forest, then passed through sub-alpine shrubs, and alpine bogs and tarns. We could also look across the valley to Lake Marian, where we had hiked yesterday. The area around us was sculpted by glaciers and today drains into 3 different river systems (the “Key Summit” being the key to the three systems.) It was cloudy, but the rain held off while we where hiking.

Back in the van, we headed to Lake Manipouri to stay overnight. Tomorrow we head to Mount Cook. There’s no hike tomorrow, so the guides suggested we start walking along the road we’ll be taking after breakfast and they’ll pick us up in the van after they get breakfast cleaned up. I guess they’re worried that on a day with no hike, we won’t get enough exercise. We’ll stop in Queenstown for any last minute purchases, then go to the bungy jump, and then on to Mount Cook and the Braeburn Sheep Station. If all goes well, we will be doing a 6 hour hike in the Mount Cook area, but rumor has it we may have to take some shorter walks due to the weather. We shall see.

I'll upload pictures when I have more time; today is Wednesday and we're making a quick stop in Queenstown for last minute shopping before heading up to the Mt. Cook. Cheers!

Today's pictures are here.