On day 6 we drove from Queenstown to Milford Sound. We took a 15 km boat ride down the fjord to the Tasman Sea and back.
It is a pretty special place and if you ever go to New Zealand it should be on your list of places to go. To quote Wikipedia, "It has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey (the 2008 Travelers' Choice Destinations Awards by TripAdvisor) and is acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had previously called it the eighth Wonder of the World."
This is the boat we were on for our tour of the fjord. It has enclosed lower deck and an open upper deck.
It was not very crowded. This picture shows 75% of the passengers. Yep, only 4 of us. As the captain said, "Welcome to your private charter."
They had a bigger boat going out at the same time. I think they didn't put us on that boat because the narration was in Chinese. I imagine they burned more diesel than our fares would cover but we appreciated that Real Journeys made sure we enjoyed the trip.
There were a number of kayakers getting a closer view of the sights.
However, I doubt they got much closer to the seals than we did. Because it is a fjord formed by a glacier the sides are very steep and the boat can maneuver within a few feet of the rocks.
They are juvenile males that have been kicked out of the colony by the dominate male. Eventually they will try to form their own colony.
These might be the smarted ones. They are resting on the vegetation.
There were several groups down the fjord.
This is a fishing boat going after what they call crayfish. I think they are what are known as lobsters in the US.
This was a really pretty scene. This is Stirling Falls. It is hard to get a sense of scale but this water fall is 495 feet high. The mountain on the other side of the fjord is over a mile high.
Here is a shot of the other tour boat moving up close to the falls. This may help give you a sense of scale.
It is said that if you are touched by the mist from the falls you will appear 10 years younger. I think maybe it worked on me but it apparently is only effective 50% of the time.
I think this is Mitre Peak on the other side of the fjord from the falls. You can't quite see the top but it is 5,551 ft high.
See what I mean about the effect of the mist?
Here is a picture of the captain, Blake. It is a pretty new, modern ship.
The captain pointed out that since the Milford Sound was formed by a glacier it is actually a fjord. New Zealand tried to correct this mistake by calling the entire are Fiordland but they compounded the mistake by misspelling it.
This is a picture of the Hollyford River. We stopped on the way back to look around.
This entire area is quite remote. Milford Sound wasn't readily accessible by land until the 1.2 km Homer tunnel and a road were completed in 1954.
I was experimenting with partial black and white conversion in this picture.
The long drive (74 miles) from the nearest town of Te Anau to the Milford sound is really pretty and is part of the experience.
This is Mirror Lake.
The road goes through Eglinton Valley for several miles.
Here some tourists stop to take pictures in a unique setting.
I don't know the name of this bird but he was making a lot of noise.
Here is another of the Keas. In this picture you can observe their signature behavior - biting of the black plastic on automobiles Apparently they can cause a lot of damage.
I think this was a bus load of Japanese tourists that happened to be there.
The birds have bright red under their wings.
Here he poses for a portrait. I see that he is banded. I wonder if he is on the park payroll. He was certainly entertaining a lot of visitors.
Here some of the tourists drink the water right out of the stream. It is a very pristine environment.
This is the restaurant were we had dinner in Te Anau on the advice of the boat captain. It was very good. I had the venison and Margot had the lamb.
This a video of the Stirling Falls that Margot shot.
This is a slow motion video of the Kea in flight.
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