The journey to Milford sound
Wednesday and today was the day for our tour through the wilderness of the national park to Milford sound - We expected this to be one of the highlights of our entire trip to New Zealand.
Fiordland vast and is a true wilderness. Very few people have ever lived here and even now, the road to Milford sound, completed in 1954, is the only road through the park. Apart from that, there are a few long distance footpaths (with restricted access) and that’s it. The park is 260km from top to bottom and 80km or so wide.
We took an organised bus tour with Fiordland tours. Our driver and guide was the proprietor, Ray, a retired sheep farmer, who proved to be an excellent guide.
We left the motel at 8am, collected a few more passengers, and set out North along the shore of the lake, heading for the national park.
The road enters the park via the Edington river valley which features mile after mile of flat grassland, flanked by high, wooded mountains…
One of our stops was at the, aptly named, Mirror Lakes, where the mountains are reflected in the surface of the smooth surface of the water…
As the road wound its way up into the high peaks, we stopped to visit some cascades. This involved a trek up a track through the woods until we reached the view-point…
We stopped for a cuppa and a fresh-baked scone at Gunn’s camp, a preserved camp from the time when the Milford road was constructed. It is possible to rent accomodation here, although creature comforts are a bit meagre.
As we climbed further into the Southern Alps, the scenery became more and more spectacular…
Eventually, at the end of the valley, the Milford road comes to a sheer wall of rock that rises thousands of feet. At this point we come to a 1.25 km, single lane tunnel. At the tunnel entrance is a set of traffic lights and a display that tells you how long before the lights change. When we stopped, the sign showed six and a half minutes, so we got out and took this picture of the bus…
Once through the tunnel we descended via a series of hairpin bends, into the valley at the head of Milford sound…
…and on to the small, settlement at the same name…
