Milford with a side of Ribs

It's a bright and relatively-early morning for our Milford Sound cruise. We've really been blessed with spectacular weather today.  Or, as Ian would say, "GORGE-ous" weather.  While Ian was catching up on some blog-writing, I went outside to snap a few shots by the lake before our tour began.

 

The shuttle bus picked us up from our hotel at 9:30 so that we could join the main tour bus down in the town centre.  Most of the tour's participants were doing this as a day trip out of Queenstown.  Milford is actually only 70 kilometers or so from Queenstown as the crow flies, but since the crow would be flying over a mountain range and a lake, people traveling to Milford must take the longer 240 kilometer route, which takes roughly 5 hours.  Te Anau is about 3 hours into the trip, so the folks already on the bus had been up since 6AM -- certainly glad we weren't one of them!

The first stop en route to Milford was the Mirror Lake. This was probably my favorite photo shot of the day -- great reflections in the still water of the surrounding mountains.

It was too bad that we could only stop for a few minutes -- Ian could have stayed here for a good hour at least. 

 I've taken this trip as a chance to learn a little bit more about photography -- read: finally took the time to figure out what the AV, TV, and ISO controls on my camera meant.  Still pretty green, but it's a start?  Here's my attempt at an action shot.

The buses were clearly designed for scenic touring -- they had huge picture windows on all sides and all glass tops.  Certainly glad I put on sunscreen this morning. 

Ian, of course, was focused on the wildlife. 

Though you'd think the sign is pretty self-explanatory,  we've apparently got lots of picture-illiterate folks visiting these parts as the Kea were constantly drawn to the tour buses.

I figure we should include at least a couple shots with us in them to prove that we're not just uploading stock photos.

A little bit here about the etymology of Milford Sound.  As we were informed many times during our tour, it is not technically a sound at all, but a fjord. A sound is a land mass that is carved out by water, which at some point recedes, and then is again partially refilled, characterized by a sloping sea floor and sloping mountain sides.  By contrast, a fjord is formed when a land mass is carved out by a glacier and is characterized by a rather flat sea floor and dramatic vertical sides.  As we got closer to our destination, it became more obvious that we were nearing glacier territory.

Around 12:30, we finally arrived at the port.  We disembarked from our coach buses and boarded the boats.

Milford, particularly on a sunny, clear day like this one, is really a beautiful thing.  It's the combination of snow-capped mountains and clear green-blue water that makes it unique.

It's actually the uncommon day that sees Milford without any rain clouds. As the ship captain informed us, it rains nearly 200 days of the year in Milford. Apparently though, visitors who catch it on of those days shouldn't be too disappointed -- we saw a couple lovely waterfalls sprouting from the sides of the cliffs, but when it's raining, apparently dozens or even hundreds of tiny waterfalls appear across the area.

 

Personally though, I think the clear skies were worth a few less waterfalls. :)

For one thing, without any sun -- we'd never have gotten to see the rainbow waterfall!

Plus, I'm not sure our cameras could have taken waterfalls that were more intense...

Milford, for all its tourism popularity now, was actually overlooked by most early explorers.  When seen from the Tasman Sea, it's not much and doesn't suggest that there's enough room for ships to really pass through. 

It wasn't until the sealers came along that Milford finally made it onto the map. As our ship captain mused, the sealers really are the least appreciated explorers of the world's many coastlines.  We happened to spot a group of seals sunning themselves on an outcrop of rocks.

It's amazing how well they camouflage!

Though some can't help but strike a pose for the cameras.

 

We also tried to catch a glimpse of the Fiordland crested penguins -- they're really small, but very distinctive bright yellow crowns.  They're also one of the rarest penguins around, numbering only a couple thousand worldwide.  We slowly went past some of their favorite nesting grounds, but we only caught a glimpse of one guy as he was diving around in the water. Just take our word that this was a penguin!

 

Eventually though, it was time to head back to shore. 

We both tried to catch a nap on the bus ride back -- we had a two hour drive ahead of us on twisty roads. Ian was a trooper though and handled the roads as if he'd been driving on the left side for much longer than 1 week. He even passed our tour bus on the highway back to Queenstown. Twice. No, he didn't lap it, we stopped halfway to take pictures.  We got to our hotel before reception closed for the night, dropped off our bags, and treated ourselves to some massive ribs and steaks at Flame -- the best steakhouse in town. Ian got his filet blue (ewww!) while I over-ordered, to put it mildly.

Oh well, leftover ribs are great for breakfast! :)