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#1
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Milford Sound/ Doubtful sound, which cruise to take?
If I have the time, would it be a good idea to do the cruises on both
Sounds, or would it be better to spend the time elsewhere? Also, I can't decide on a day cruise or the overnight cruise. Are there any advantages to taking the overnight cruise? Do they go further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm really confused as to what would be the best. I do want to take a smaller boat. |
#2
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Lee wrote:
If I have the time, would it be a good idea to do the cruises on both Sounds, or would it be better to spend the time elsewhere? Also, I can't decide on a day cruise or the overnight cruise. Are there any advantages to taking the overnight cruise? Do they go further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm really confused as to what would be the best. I do want to take a smaller boat. Both are great, so you'll likely be pleased with whichever you choose. Probably not worth your while doing both though. The disadvantage of Milford sound is the large number of tourists who go there - it's a bit of a crush at times. There is no road access to Doubtful Sound, so if you go on a trip there, you'll be much less likely to see anyone else. I'd go for Doubtful sound. Can't comment on the overnighters. -- Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me. |
#3
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Lee wrote:
If I have the time, would it be a good idea to do the cruises on both Sounds, or would it be better to spend the time elsewhere? Also, I can't decide on a day cruise or the overnight cruise. Are there any advantages to taking the overnight cruise? Do they go further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm really confused as to what would be the best. I do want to take a smaller boat. Both are great, so you'll likely be pleased with whichever you choose. Probably not worth your while doing both though. The disadvantage of Milford sound is the large number of tourists who go there - it's a bit of a crush at times. There is no road access to Doubtful Sound, so if you go on a trip there, you'll be much less likely to see anyone else. I'd go for Doubtful sound. Can't comment on the overnighters. -- Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me. |
#4
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Lee wrote:
If I have the time, would it be a good idea to do the cruises on both Sounds, or would it be better to spend the time elsewhere? Also, I can't decide on a day cruise or the overnight cruise. Are there any advantages to taking the overnight cruise? Do they go further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm really confused as to what would be the best. I do want to take a smaller boat. I've been on both day and overnight cruises and can recommend the overnight one. Sure, it costs a fair bit more, but you get accomodation and meals which you'd have to pay for elsewhere. The big bonus is that you don't have to share the place with great crowds of tourists. The normal flow is for a stream of tour buses to come in from Te Anau and Queenstown in the morning and out again in the afternoon. That's a lot of traffic all going the same way at the same time on a fairly narrow and winding road. It kind of detracts from the attraction of the magnificent drive if you are stuck in between a couple of big buses. As well as that all the stopping points are crowded, and getting lunch or having a quiet morning or afternoon tea at Milford is difficult. If you take the overnight cruise, then you can come in during the afternoon. If you pick your time the road is pretty quiet and most of the traffic will be going the other direction, anyway. There are two (sometimes three) overnight boats in summer - one has double or twin ensuite cabins and the other has four bunk cabins with shared facilities (for about half the price). You board about 4:30 PM, get a light meal as you head out down the Sound, and do all the usual stuff, look at the waterfalls, go out into the Tasman, check out the seals etc. It takes a couple of hours and then you anchor at a sheltered cove (one of the few places you can ancher - mostly the sheer rockwalls plunge down vertically way below the surface) and have dinner. Weather permitting you can go kayaking or in a rubber duckie or have a walk ashore, all with crew members supervising and pointing out wildlife. After breakfast in the morning you do another cruise up and down the Sound and finish about 0930. So you get two cruises, two meals, accomodation and the chance of some off-boat activities. The big advantage of being there for thirteen hours instead of three is that you get more of a chance to see the place while it isn't raining. I've yet to see Milford Sound on a clear blue day, but at least the last time it cleared up slightly in the morning. The drive in is spectacular, the fjord itself is awesome, and the cruise is great fun. http://www.fiordlandtravel.co.nz/Main/OvernightCruises/ has a page giving some details and pictures. And if you'll allow me to self-indulgently quote from my book on New Zealand: We bought lunch at Te Anau, a trim little town on the edge of the lake of the same name. The guidebook told us to fill up with petrol here, because the next service station was in Milford Sound, where standard petrol was at a premium. It also mentioned the nearby film locations of Kepler Mire and Bog Pine Paddock, which had been the Midgewater Marsh near Bree and the Dead Marshes near Mordor. Take insect repellent and gumboots, dear re-enactor! I wanted a picnic spot on the shores of the lake, but endless forest lined the lakeside. We finally found a track leading in, taking us to a stony little beach under the beeches. Across the calm lake the clouds were massing above the mountains and my hopes of a clear day at Milford were fading rapidly. Lunch was fresh pull-apart loaves, meat slices and fruit nectar. John and I tried throwing the beach into the lake but we couldn't make much headway - there were just too many perfect flat, rounded stones to skim and bounce across the still surface. And then we were away again, taking care not to sink into the shingle as we made a 21-point turn to head back to the road. Another stop further on (and further up into the mountains) at the Mirror Lakes, a popular place for the big tour buses. Final pause of the day was at the entrance to the Homer Tunnel. I wanted to release a book inside this landmark, and besides, here was a chance to finally see some kea. In 1983 they had been everywhere in the mountains, but now signs warned against feeding them, telling us that the diet of tourist titbits which had sustained them in record numbers for decades was unhealthy for them. Hmmmm. I suspect that the current campaign was intended to limit the damage they caused to hire cars, but that's still a worthy objective. I wrapped my book up in a ziplock bag, walked about fifty metres inside the tunnel, propped it against one of the walls, took a few flash pictures and walked back outside. You want to see the pix? You'll have to check out the journal entry, because the best is pretty woeful. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1193406 has a fuzzy photograph for the keen Bookcrosser to smile at. This year the "snow" extended far closer to the road, and was more like the real thing than the freezer scrapings we'd seen two decades earlier. After spending most of the intervening years living in Canberra, we now knew all about snow! Kerri and the kids were doing their best to peg snowballs at each other, but when a boulder came crashing down the side of the mountain, sending up a scatter of ice flakes before rolling to a stop a few metres away, we decided it was time to be on back on the road! But before we went Mary, bless her mischievous heart, had to give one of the kea a feed. Hard to resist these stocky, cheeky birds, and Mary is not one to pass up a chance to give an animal a bit of affection, be it caravan park cat, mountain kea or inquisitive deer. The tunnel must have been widened in the interval, because the half-hour each way roster system had gone and it was open slather. Still, I was glad that I had decided not to release my book in mid-tunnel - there was no room at all to pull over and the last thing I wanted behind me was a tourist bus full of curious people watching as I took photographs of a book in a plastic bag! On the other end the clouds were starting to break into drizzle and it was two hours before our cruise would be ready to leave. We looked for our riverside park, but there was now a backpackers lodge on the site and the access path had been paved over. At the end of the road we found the cruise terminal, where parking was restricted to tour coaches only. The public car park was four hundred metres back down the road, so we turned around, parked the car and warmed ourselves with cappuccinos and cake in the coffee shop of the THC. John moped around the souvenir displays and I discovered an internet connection where I made release notes for Homer Tunnel. When boarding time approached, I dropped the family at the cruise terminal, took the car back to the car park and set off along the walkway, my umbrella a welcome protection against the drizzle. The edge of the fjord was fringed with reeds and low trees and when an opening came, I looked out over the water surface to the misty shape of Mitre Peak beyond. There was a boat out there, its tiny shape almost lost against the mountains. I blinked and realised that this was no boat. It was the enormous cruise liner Star Princess, and it looked like a toy in a bathtub here. Strange - it had seemed to dwarf the whole city of Wellington when I had seen it a few days earlier. It was a perfect illustration of the immensity of the fjord - Mitre Peak soared a mile into the air and the rest of the landscape was in proportion. The cruise terminal was warm and dry, a welcome relief, and we camped in a corner watching the ebb and flow of tourists. We were long past the time of the day trippers from Queenstown or Te Anau - everyone we saw here was staying overnight, one way or another. Our call came after a while, and we trooped out to our boat, the MV Milford Wanderer, a big blue two masted steel ketch; cruise boat by day, youth hostel by night. The crew efficiently poured us downstairs to a succession of cabins, each containing two or four bunks, a porthole, a curtain for a door, with passenger names written on a small piece of whiteboard. We had a four-bunker and after stowing our bag Kerri and I left John and Mary flaking out, teenager-like, on the bunks while we went upstairs to have a look around the ship. Not much to it, really. Two masts, each with a sail that was more or less permanently stowed. Passenger accommodation belowdecks in a series of compartments. Diesels at the stern. On the main deck was the passenger cabin with a bar/kitchen/shop, a series of six toilets right aft. Showers and stockroom forward. Upper deck was the bridge, with crew accommodation behind. Passengers were free to roam inside and outside - the ship was crammed with viewing platforms and very little was "out-of-bounds". Even the bridge was accessible, and later on I took John up to see how the captain steered using a joystick. Once all the passengers were aboard, we were called to the main cabin and given a safety briefing, a guide to what facilities were available, what we'd be doing, and an introduction to the crew of five. The plan was for a cruise along the fjord, out into the ocean and back in to moor in Harrisons Cove, one of the three places where boats could anchor, the rock walls of the old glacier valley plunging straight down to a great depth. We'd have dinner there, do a bit of kayaking and shore excursions if the weather was clement, spend the night at anchor, and after breakfast in the morning we'd do another trip out to the ocean and back in to the cruise terminal. And with that, we got under way, bowls of rich red, warming tomato soup were served, and we set about introducing ourselves. The other passengers, sixty or more all told, were a range of ages, mostly between 20 and 40. No other teenagers besides John and Mary, only a couple of other children, and very few of the retirees one might expect. Perhaps they'd all gone on the other ship in the fleet, which carried the same number of passengers in twin or double ensuite cabins and cost twice as much. There was no ship's library where I could release a book, but a few books, mainly reference works on the history and wildlife and vegetation of Milford Sound, were scattered about and I deftly released a thriller amongst them. Not yet caught, perhaps it is still there, stamped "MILFORD WANDERER" by some zealous crew member. We were given a considerable amount of information over the next few hours of the long summer evening. This close to the summer solstice and this far south, the days were several miles long and the sun didn't set until somewhere around nine or ten. To begin with, we got the standard line about being lucky to have a rainy day because we could see all the dozens of waterfalls rather than just the two or three permanent falls. A standard line because I remembered it from twenty years previously! And another canned line: Milford Sound isn't really a sound - it's a fjord because it was carved out by a glacier rather than a river. Fjords are marked by a U-shaped profile if you include the underwater section and as a result the sides are steep and the water is uniformly deep. Milford Sound was named after Milford Haven in Wales by one of the early seal-hunters. Of course it already had a Maori name, a wonder that for such a remote and rugged location the Maori ever penetrated here. They certainly did, passing over the mountains via the route of the present-day Milford Track, and they then built canoes to explore it and mine the greenstone found near the fjord entrance, building roaring fires amongst the damp rocks to crack the greenstone into manageable pieces. Their name was Piopiotahi meaning "place of the singing thrush", a bird now extinct here. As we cruise down the sound the rain eases off and we go outside. The waterfalls, the many waterfalls, are spectacular, plunging down from an enormous height. The captain points the ship directly at one of the highest. I know what's coming and I edge back to about the level of the bridge. The captain takes advantage of the steep side to nudge the bow right under the falling water. One by one the passengers scuttle away from this immense cold shower. All but one brave young fellow in a raincoat and hat who shrieks with delight as he is engulfed in the torrent. He loves it! We back slowly astern and he shakes himself dry, looking back at the bridge with a broad and brilliant smile. Further down the fjord we enter an area of high wind where the cliffs on either side approach each other in a gigantic wind funnel. We look high above and there is a waterfall flowing the wrong way - the wind is actually blowing the entire flow of a large waterfall straight up into the clouds. Awesome! The sea cliffs are steep and in the case of those under Mitre Peak I must use that word "awesome" again. They have been colonised in most places by a sort of vertical forest, each tree interlocking its roots with its neighbours, forming a mat that extends hundreds of metres up. Here and there entire segments have ripped away from the wall, one tree taking the next with it in an expanding domino sequence until cliffsides are laid bare. It can take several decades for the forest to work its way back up. Here and there the cliffs are so steep that they actually project out over the water. The ship slides close alongside and we are told to put our backs to the rail and lean back. We do so and see the cliff face bulging out above us, way, way above us. The scale is immense. Milford Sound is larger than life and the crew take pleasure and pride in showing it off. Up on the bridge one crew member is detailed to look for wildlife and she announces a pod of dolphins. We rush to the bow and there they are - Dusky dolphins, natives of Dusky Sound further south, playing and frolicking around the bow. They move with glittering speed, racing, chasing, speeding under the water and reappearing under our noses. They vanish as quickly as they came, but we stay out on deck as we head out into the sea. Mary raises her arm and points - a bird, she says, a sort of duck, maybe? A bird it is, the crew member on the bridge tells us. A very rare Fiordland Crested Penguin, out fishing for its chick, snug in a burrow ashore. We go right out into the Tasman Sea before turning and looking back. The entrance to the fjord is all but invisible, and we are told that this is probably why James Cook didn't see it when he passed by in early 1770. Of course, in his sailing ship he would not have wanted to venture too close inshore, especially with the winds blowing from the west, as they almost always do. I feel awed by the presence of greatness. Not just the mighty sights of Milford Sound, but the knowledge that here I am floating on the same water that Cook sailed on, two and a half centuries back. Such a man to have cast so long a shadow! We sail back inside and the dolphins rejoin us, leaping out of the water and zooming in for a minute or so of riding the bow wave. Of course we've all seen dolphins before at places like Sea World, but this is different. This is wild. We pass rocks on which seals are reclining. Seems there were more last time we were here, but there are maybe a score scattered around. I refrain from taking photographs - we don't come close enough for them not to look like rocks, at least in my base-grade camera with zero optical or digital zoom. Rainbows appear ahead as the sun slices along the horizon behind us like a buzz-saw before finally vanishing. I try to take a few photographs but the results are disappointing. Coffee and tea are available in the main cabin on a self-serve basis, and I drink several cups during the trip, not least for the warming effect - out on the deck it is chilly in the declining evening, compounded by the light rain and the ever-present wind. And then we are moving slowly through Harrisons Cove, aiming for a mooring close to shore. The larger Milford Mariner is already anchored fore and aft further out, but we pick up lines secured ashore before dinner is served. Dinner is three solid courses, all of it hearty and delicious. The bar is opened before dinner and drinks are available. I ask the crew member working the bar for a recommendation and his face lights up as he expands on the merits of the various brands, based on his long and happy experience. It's all good stuff, however, and I enjoy the beer he proffers as the best. In fine weather there are wildlife cruises in the rubber duckies, kayaking off the stern and shore walks, but the weather is fairly miserable today, so we settle in the main cabin where the company grows lively. Just before I turned in I overheard a couple of the crew members discussing a stunt - they were to dive from the top deck into the icy waters of the fjord on a dare. Which they did a few moments later - they invited me to join them, but I was prevented on two counts - I had no "togs" with me, and I was in full possession of all my senses. Swimming at night in a fjord - come on! Finally the bar closed and the ship slept. I got up in the early hours and looked out on the still waters, the waterfalls cascading down the cliffs, the silent forests, everything silver and black under a scudding moon. A cold, lonely, unearthly view. And all too soon it's morning again, and the ship is alive with passengers having a morning cuppa, shower, shave... Breakfast is even heartier than dinner, and with everyone fresh, clean and full, we head out to the ocean again. It is awesome, especially with the new day a little clearer than the previous. With the sun coming from a different direction we see Milford Sound literally in a new light. And then, all too soon, we are sliding back into the cruise terminal, people are shaking hands, saying goodbye, dragging their luggage up from below... It is raining again, and I unfurl my umbrella, walk back to the car park and ease my mind as to whether I left the lights on overnight. I hadn't. The car starts easily and I am able to offer a lift to the terminal to a couple of lanky Scandinavian backpackers. They hop out, my family hops in, and we're off on the next leg, back up to Homer Tunnel, check whether my book has been caught - no, it's still waiting in the darkness, gleaming in the regular flash of headlights - and then wind down again through the mountains past the lakes and into Te Anau. http://www.lulu.com/content/56751 |
#5
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Hello!
The Milford Sound cruise was a highlight of my visit to New Zealand, although I understand the weather can be a little trick in that area. We toured around noon so a lunch was served. Queenstown was another scenery highlight. Regards, Bruce |
#6
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Thank you all so very much for the information. And a great big thak
you to you, Peter. I really appreciate all the great advice and information. I raelly enjoyed reading the passage from your book. Although I haven't been on the tour yet, it makes it all come alive. For sure I'll be booking the overnight tour on the same boat you were on. We will be staying in Queenston the night before, as my friend is doing the 4 day Milford trek. I will srop her off and then spend a quiet morning on my own before heading out to the boat. By what you are saying, I don't want to head out too early. I don't want to get too tangled up with tour buses. So I think I'll head out around lunch time. BTW, I think it's great that you've written a book and I'd love to know more about it and if it would help me with the rest of my trip. I must say I didn't know about setting books free, but read the site and it sounds like a great idea. If you can think of anythnkg else that will help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to you, I am going to book the overnight cruise. "Peter" wrote in message ... Lee wrote: If I have the time, would it be a good idea to do the cruises on both Sounds, or would it be better to spend the time elsewhere? Also, I can't decide on a day cruise or the overnight cruise. Are there any advantages to taking the overnight cruise? Do they go further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I'm really confused as to what would be the best. I do want to take a smaller boat. I've been on both day and overnight cruises and can recommend the overnight one. Sure, it costs a fair bit more, but you get accomodation and meals which you'd have to pay for elsewhere. The big bonus is that you don't have to share the place with great crowds of tourists. The normal flow is for a stream of tour buses to come in from Te Anau and Queenstown in the morning and out again in the afternoon. That's a lot of traffic all going the same way at the same time on a fairly narrow and winding road. It kind of detracts from the attraction of the magnificent drive if you are stuck in between a couple of big buses. As well as that all the stopping points are crowded, and getting lunch or having a quiet morning or afternoon tea at Milford is difficult. If you take the overnight cruise, then you can come in during the afternoon. If you pick your time the road is pretty quiet and most of the traffic will be going the other direction, anyway. There are two (sometimes three) overnight boats in summer - one has double or twin ensuite cabins and the other has four bunk cabins with shared facilities (for about half the price). You board about 4:30 PM, get a light meal as you head out down the Sound, and do all the usual stuff, look at the waterfalls, go out into the Tasman, check out the seals etc. It takes a couple of hours and then you anchor at a sheltered cove (one of the few places you can ancher - mostly the sheer rockwalls plunge down vertically way below the surface) and have dinner. Weather permitting you can go kayaking or in a rubber duckie or have a walk ashore, all with crew members supervising and pointing out wildlife. After breakfast in the morning you do another cruise up and down the Sound and finish about 0930. So you get two cruises, two meals, accomodation and the chance of some off-boat activities. The big advantage of being there for thirteen hours instead of three is that you get more of a chance to see the place while it isn't raining. I've yet to see Milford Sound on a clear blue day, but at least the last time it cleared up slightly in the morning. The drive in is spectacular, the fjord itself is awesome, and the cruise is great fun. http://www.fiordlandtravel.co.nz/Main/OvernightCruises/ has a page giving some details and pictures. And if you'll allow me to self-indulgently quote from my book on New Zealand: We bought lunch at Te Anau, a trim little town on the edge of the lake of the same name. The guidebook told us to fill up with petrol here, because the next service station was in Milford Sound, where standard petrol was at a premium. It also mentioned the nearby film locations of Kepler Mire and Bog Pine Paddock, which had been the Midgewater Marsh near Bree and the Dead Marshes near Mordor. Take insect repellent and gumboots, dear re-enactor! I wanted a picnic spot on the shores of the lake, but endless forest lined the lakeside. We finally found a track leading in, taking us to a stony little beach under the beeches. Across the calm lake the clouds were massing above the mountains and my hopes of a clear day at Milford were fading rapidly. Lunch was fresh pull-apart loaves, meat slices and fruit nectar. John and I tried throwing the beach into the lake but we couldn't make much headway - there were just too many perfect flat, rounded stones to skim and bounce across the still surface. And then we were away again, taking care not to sink into the shingle as we made a 21-point turn to head back to the road. Another stop further on (and further up into the mountains) at the Mirror Lakes, a popular place for the big tour buses. Final pause of the day was at the entrance to the Homer Tunnel. I wanted to release a book inside this landmark, and besides, here was a chance to finally see some kea. In 1983 they had been everywhere in the mountains, but now signs warned against feeding them, telling us that the diet of tourist titbits which had sustained them in record numbers for decades was unhealthy for them. Hmmmm. I suspect that the current campaign was intended to limit the damage they caused to hire cars, but that's still a worthy objective. I wrapped my book up in a ziplock bag, walked about fifty metres inside the tunnel, propped it against one of the walls, took a few flash pictures and walked back outside. You want to see the pix? You'll have to check out the journal entry, because the best is pretty woeful. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1193406 has a fuzzy photograph for the keen Bookcrosser to smile at. This year the "snow" extended far closer to the road, and was more like the real thing than the freezer scrapings we'd seen two decades earlier. After spending most of the intervening years living in Canberra, we now knew all about snow! Kerri and the kids were doing their best to peg snowballs at each other, but when a boulder came crashing down the side of the mountain, sending up a scatter of ice flakes before rolling to a stop a few metres away, we decided it was time to be on back on the road! But before we went Mary, bless her mischievous heart, had to give one of the kea a feed. Hard to resist these stocky, cheeky birds, and Mary is not one to pass up a chance to give an animal a bit of affection, be it caravan park cat, mountain kea or inquisitive deer. The tunnel must have been widened in the interval, because the half-hour each way roster system had gone and it was open slather. Still, I was glad that I had decided not to release my book in mid-tunnel - there was no room at all to pull over and the last thing I wanted behind me was a tourist bus full of curious people watching as I took photographs of a book in a plastic bag! On the other end the clouds were starting to break into drizzle and it was two hours before our cruise would be ready to leave. We looked for our riverside park, but there was now a backpackers lodge on the site and the access path had been paved over. At the end of the road we found the cruise terminal, where parking was restricted to tour coaches only. The public car park was four hundred metres back down the road, so we turned around, parked the car and warmed ourselves with cappuccinos and cake in the coffee shop of the THC. John moped around the souvenir displays and I discovered an internet connection where I made release notes for Homer Tunnel. When boarding time approached, I dropped the family at the cruise terminal, took the car back to the car park and set off along the walkway, my umbrella a welcome protection against the drizzle. The edge of the fjord was fringed with reeds and low trees and when an opening came, I looked out over the water surface to the misty shape of Mitre Peak beyond. There was a boat out there, its tiny shape almost lost against the mountains. I blinked and realised that this was no boat. It was the enormous cruise liner Star Princess, and it looked like a toy in a bathtub here. Strange - it had seemed to dwarf the whole city of Wellington when I had seen it a few days earlier. It was a perfect illustration of the immensity of the fjord - Mitre Peak soared a mile into the air and the rest of the landscape was in proportion. The cruise terminal was warm and dry, a welcome relief, and we camped in a corner watching the ebb and flow of tourists. We were long past the time of the day trippers from Queenstown or Te Anau - everyone we saw here was staying overnight, one way or another. Our call came after a while, and we trooped out to our boat, the MV Milford Wanderer, a big blue two masted steel ketch; cruise boat by day, youth hostel by night. The crew efficiently poured us downstairs to a succession of cabins, each containing two or four bunks, a porthole, a curtain for a door, with passenger names written on a small piece of whiteboard. We had a four-bunker and after stowing our bag Kerri and I left John and Mary flaking out, teenager-like, on the bunks while we went upstairs to have a look around the ship. Not much to it, really. Two masts, each with a sail that was more or less permanently stowed. Passenger accommodation belowdecks in a series of compartments. Diesels at the stern. On the main deck was the passenger cabin with a bar/kitchen/shop, a series of six toilets right aft. Showers and stockroom forward. Upper deck was the bridge, with crew accommodation behind. Passengers were free to roam inside and outside - the ship was crammed with viewing platforms and very little was "out-of-bounds". Even the bridge was accessible, and later on I took John up to see how the captain steered using a joystick. Once all the passengers were aboard, we were called to the main cabin and given a safety briefing, a guide to what facilities were available, what we'd be doing, and an introduction to the crew of five. The plan was for a cruise along the fjord, out into the ocean and back in to moor in Harrisons Cove, one of the three places where boats could anchor, the rock walls of the old glacier valley plunging straight down to a great depth. We'd have dinner there, do a bit of kayaking and shore excursions if the weather was clement, spend the night at anchor, and after breakfast in the morning we'd do another trip out to the ocean and back in to the cruise terminal. And with that, we got under way, bowls of rich red, warming tomato soup were served, and we set about introducing ourselves. The other passengers, sixty or more all told, were a range of ages, mostly between 20 and 40. No other teenagers besides John and Mary, only a couple of other children, and very few of the retirees one might expect. Perhaps they'd all gone on the other ship in the fleet, which carried the same number of passengers in twin or double ensuite cabins and cost twice as much. There was no ship's library where I could release a book, but a few books, mainly reference works on the history and wildlife and vegetation of Milford Sound, were scattered about and I deftly released a thriller amongst them. Not yet caught, perhaps it is still there, stamped "MILFORD WANDERER" by some zealous crew member. We were given a considerable amount of information over the next few hours of the long summer evening. This close to the summer solstice and this far south, the days were several miles long and the sun didn't set until somewhere around nine or ten. To begin with, we got the standard line about being lucky to have a rainy day because we could see all the dozens of waterfalls rather than just the two or three permanent falls. A standard line because I remembered it from twenty years previously! And another canned line: Milford Sound isn't really a sound - it's a fjord because it was carved out by a glacier rather than a river. Fjords are marked by a U-shaped profile if you include the underwater section and as a result the sides are steep and the water is uniformly deep. Milford Sound was named after Milford Haven in Wales by one of the early seal-hunters. Of course it already had a Maori name, a wonder that for such a remote and rugged location the Maori ever penetrated here. They certainly did, passing over the mountains via the route of the present-day Milford Track, and they then built canoes to explore it and mine the greenstone found near the fjord entrance, building roaring fires amongst the damp rocks to crack the greenstone into manageable pieces. Their name was Piopiotahi meaning "place of the singing thrush", a bird now extinct here. As we cruise down the sound the rain eases off and we go outside. The waterfalls, the many waterfalls, are spectacular, plunging down from an enormous height. The captain points the ship directly at one of the highest. I know what's coming and I edge back to about the level of the bridge. The captain takes advantage of the steep side to nudge the bow right under the falling water. One by one the passengers scuttle away from this immense cold shower. All but one brave young fellow in a raincoat and hat who shrieks with delight as he is engulfed in the torrent. He loves it! We back slowly astern and he shakes himself dry, looking back at the bridge with a broad and brilliant smile. Further down the fjord we enter an area of high wind where the cliffs on either side approach each other in a gigantic wind funnel. We look high above and there is a waterfall flowing the wrong way - the wind is actually blowing the entire flow of a large waterfall straight up into the clouds. Awesome! The sea cliffs are steep and in the case of those under Mitre Peak I must use that word "awesome" again. They have been colonised in most places by a sort of vertical forest, each tree interlocking its roots with its neighbours, forming a mat that extends hundreds of metres up. Here and there entire segments have ripped away from the wall, one tree taking the next with it in an expanding domino sequence until cliffsides are laid bare. It can take several decades for the forest to work its way back up. Here and there the cliffs are so steep that they actually project out over the water. The ship slides close alongside and we are told to put our backs to the rail and lean back. We do so and see the cliff face bulging out above us, way, way above us. The scale is immense. Milford Sound is larger than life and the crew take pleasure and pride in showing it off. Up on the bridge one crew member is detailed to look for wildlife and she announces a pod of dolphins. We rush to the bow and there they are - Dusky dolphins, natives of Dusky Sound further south, playing and frolicking around the bow. They move with glittering speed, racing, chasing, speeding under the water and reappearing under our noses. They vanish as quickly as they came, but we stay out on deck as we head out into the sea. Mary raises her arm and points - a bird, she says, a sort of duck, maybe? A bird it is, the crew member on the bridge tells us. A very rare Fiordland Crested Penguin, out fishing for its chick, snug in a burrow ashore. We go right out into the Tasman Sea before turning and looking back. The entrance to the fjord is all but invisible, and we are told that this is probably why James Cook didn't see it when he passed by in early 1770. Of course, in his sailing ship he would not have wanted to venture too close inshore, especially with the winds blowing from the west, as they almost always do. I feel awed by the presence of greatness. Not just the mighty sights of Milford Sound, but the knowledge that here I am floating on the same water that Cook sailed on, two and a half centuries back. Such a man to have cast so long a shadow! We sail back inside and the dolphins rejoin us, leaping out of the water and zooming in for a minute or so of riding the bow wave. Of course we've all seen dolphins before at places like Sea World, but this is different. This is wild. We pass rocks on which seals are reclining. Seems there were more last time we were here, but there are maybe a score scattered around. I refrain from taking photographs - we don't come close enough for them not to look like rocks, at least in my base-grade camera with zero optical or digital zoom. Rainbows appear ahead as the sun slices along the horizon behind us like a buzz-saw before finally vanishing. I try to take a few photographs but the results are disappointing. Coffee and tea are available in the main cabin on a self-serve basis, and I drink several cups during the trip, not least for the warming effect - out on the deck it is chilly in the declining evening, compounded by the light rain and the ever-present wind. And then we are moving slowly through Harrisons Cove, aiming for a mooring close to shore. The larger Milford Mariner is already anchored fore and aft further out, but we pick up lines secured ashore before dinner is served. Dinner is three solid courses, all of it hearty and delicious. The bar is opened before dinner and drinks are available. I ask the crew member working the bar for a recommendation and his face lights up as he expands on the merits of the various brands, based on his long and happy experience. It's all good stuff, however, and I enjoy the beer he proffers as the best. In fine weather there are wildlife cruises in the rubber duckies, kayaking off the stern and shore walks, but the weather is fairly miserable today, so we settle in the main cabin where the company grows lively. Just before I turned in I overheard a couple of the crew members discussing a stunt - they were to dive from the top deck into the icy waters of the fjord on a dare. Which they did a few moments later - they invited me to join them, but I was prevented on two counts - I had no "togs" with me, and I was in full possession of all my senses. Swimming at night in a fjord - come on! Finally the bar closed and the ship slept. I got up in the early hours and looked out on the still waters, the waterfalls cascading down the cliffs, the silent forests, everything silver and black under a scudding moon. A cold, lonely, unearthly view. And all too soon it's morning again, and the ship is alive with passengers having a morning cuppa, shower, shave... Breakfast is even heartier than dinner, and with everyone fresh, clean and full, we head out to the ocean again. It is awesome, especially with the new day a little clearer than the previous. With the sun coming from a different direction we see Milford Sound literally in a new light. And then, all too soon, we are sliding back into the cruise terminal, people are shaking hands, saying goodbye, dragging their luggage up from below... It is raining again, and I unfurl my umbrella, walk back to the car park and ease my mind as to whether I left the lights on overnight. I hadn't. The car starts easily and I am able to offer a lift to the terminal to a couple of lanky Scandinavian backpackers. They hop out, my family hops in, and we're off on the next leg, back up to Homer Tunnel, check whether my book has been caught - no, it's still waiting in the darkness, gleaming in the regular flash of headlights - and then wind down again through the mountains past the lakes and into Te Anau. http://www.lulu.com/content/56751 |
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Lee wrote:
Thank you all so very much for the information. And a great big thak you to you, Peter. I really appreciate all the great advice and information. I raelly enjoyed reading the passage from your book. Although I haven't been on the tour yet, it makes it all come alive. For sure I'll be booking the overnight tour on the same boat you were on. We will be staying in Queenston the night before, as my friend is doing the 4 day Milford trek. I will srop her off and then spend a quiet morning on my own before heading out to the boat. By what you are saying, I don't want to head out too early. I don't want to get too tangled up with tour buses. So I think I'll head out around lunch time. BTW, I think it's great that you've written a book and I'd love to know more about it and if it would help me with the rest of my trip. I must say I didn't know about setting books free, but read the site and it sounds like a great idea. If you can think of anythnkg else that will help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to you, I am going to book the overnight cruise. Ah, Queenstown! Another highlight of New Zealand. Literally. An amazingly beautiful place. There's not actually a lot to do in Milford Sound if you aren't on a boat. The steep walls of the fjord dive into the water and anything resembling flat land is at a premium. The beginning of the Milford Track - one of the world's great walks, by the way - is north of Te Anau. Depending on where your friend is leaving from - often transportation from Te Anau is included in the trek package - you might like to spend that lazy morning in Te Anau itself, as it's a pleasant town with some great lakeside parks. About lunchtime the road to Milford will be clear of tourist coaches and there are several roadside parks and walks and outlooks. The Mirror Lakes with their amusing sign are worth a look, and if you haven't seen those piratical keas before this, the stop just before the Homer Tunnel is guaranteed to have a few. From the hotel (and attached coffee shop) you'll see that famous postcard view of Mitre Peak if the weather is at all clear. Grab a cappucino and enjoy the sight. You'll get closer in the boat, but about all you'll see will be a long cliff heading up up up. Mitre Peak needs distance to appreciate. My book is available on the net - it's a freebie download at the moment, and there are plenty of photographs. http://www.lulu.com/content/56751 Have fun in New Zealand - it's a delightful place and I plan to go back every chance I get. Pete |
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Lee wrote:
Thank you all so very much for the information. And a great big thak you to you, Peter. I really appreciate all the great advice and information. I raelly enjoyed reading the passage from your book. Although I haven't been on the tour yet, it makes it all come alive. For sure I'll be booking the overnight tour on the same boat you were on. We will be staying in Queenston the night before, as my friend is doing the 4 day Milford trek. I will srop her off and then spend a quiet morning on my own before heading out to the boat. By what you are saying, I don't want to head out too early. I don't want to get too tangled up with tour buses. So I think I'll head out around lunch time. BTW, I think it's great that you've written a book and I'd love to know more about it and if it would help me with the rest of my trip. I must say I didn't know about setting books free, but read the site and it sounds like a great idea. If you can think of anythnkg else that will help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to you, I am going to book the overnight cruise. Ah, Queenstown! Another highlight of New Zealand. Literally. An amazingly beautiful place. There's not actually a lot to do in Milford Sound if you aren't on a boat. The steep walls of the fjord dive into the water and anything resembling flat land is at a premium. The beginning of the Milford Track - one of the world's great walks, by the way - is north of Te Anau. Depending on where your friend is leaving from - often transportation from Te Anau is included in the trek package - you might like to spend that lazy morning in Te Anau itself, as it's a pleasant town with some great lakeside parks. About lunchtime the road to Milford will be clear of tourist coaches and there are several roadside parks and walks and outlooks. The Mirror Lakes with their amusing sign are worth a look, and if you haven't seen those piratical keas before this, the stop just before the Homer Tunnel is guaranteed to have a few. From the hotel (and attached coffee shop) you'll see that famous postcard view of Mitre Peak if the weather is at all clear. Grab a cappucino and enjoy the sight. You'll get closer in the boat, but about all you'll see will be a long cliff heading up up up. Mitre Peak needs distance to appreciate. My book is available on the net - it's a freebie download at the moment, and there are plenty of photographs. http://www.lulu.com/content/56751 Have fun in New Zealand - it's a delightful place and I plan to go back every chance I get. Pete |
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Peter thanks so much for the added information. My friend is actually
being picked up in Queenston for her trek, so I will make my way to Te Anau and then on to Milford Sound. I read the 'preview of your book and it looks great. In order to download the book, I'm assuming I have to 'tick' off download and proceed from there.. But I have no idea what 2086 KB means. I have a fairly old computer, which I really just use for my travel research and emails. So I don't know if I dare to download something so big. ( It sounds big to me!). I will definately watch for the birds. I'm not familiar with them, but I'm sure I will be! Any other 'must sees'? "Peter" wrote in message ... Lee wrote: Thank you all so very much for the information. And a great big thak you to you, Peter. I really appreciate all the great advice and information. I raelly enjoyed reading the passage from your book. Although I haven't been on the tour yet, it makes it all come alive. For sure I'll be booking the overnight tour on the same boat you were on. We will be staying in Queenston the night before, as my friend is doing the 4 day Milford trek. I will srop her off and then spend a quiet morning on my own before heading out to the boat. By what you are saying, I don't want to head out too early. I don't want to get too tangled up with tour buses. So I think I'll head out around lunch time. BTW, I think it's great that you've written a book and I'd love to know more about it and if it would help me with the rest of my trip. I must say I didn't know about setting books free, but read the site and it sounds like a great idea. If you can think of anythnkg else that will help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to you, I am going to book the overnight cruise. Ah, Queenstown! Another highlight of New Zealand. Literally. An amazingly beautiful place. There's not actually a lot to do in Milford Sound if you aren't on a boat. The steep walls of the fjord dive into the water and anything resembling flat land is at a premium. The beginning of the Milford Track - one of the world's great walks, by the way - is north of Te Anau. Depending on where your friend is leaving from - often transportation from Te Anau is included in the trek package - you might like to spend that lazy morning in Te Anau itself, as it's a pleasant town with some great lakeside parks. About lunchtime the road to Milford will be clear of tourist coaches and there are several roadside parks and walks and outlooks. The Mirror Lakes with their amusing sign are worth a look, and if you haven't seen those piratical keas before this, the stop just before the Homer Tunnel is guaranteed to have a few. From the hotel (and attached coffee shop) you'll see that famous postcard view of Mitre Peak if the weather is at all clear. Grab a cappucino and enjoy the sight. You'll get closer in the boat, but about all you'll see will be a long cliff heading up up up. Mitre Peak needs distance to appreciate. My book is available on the net - it's a freebie download at the moment, and there are plenty of photographs. http://www.lulu.com/content/56751 Have fun in New Zealand - it's a delightful place and I plan to go back every chance I get. Pete |
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Lee wrote:
Peter thanks so much for the added information. My friend is actually being picked up in Queenston for her trek, so I will make my way to Te Anau and then on to Milford Sound. I read the 'preview of your book and it looks great. In order to download the book, I'm assuming I have to 'tick' off download and proceed from there.. But I have no idea what 2086 KB means. I have a fairly old computer, which I really just use for my travel research and emails. So I don't know if I dare to download something so big. ( It sounds big to me!). I will definately watch for the birds. I'm not familiar with them, but I'm sure I will be! 2086 KB is 2 megabytes, which should fit on any computer. If you didn't have 2 megs spare on your hard disk, then your computer would be acting up in all sorts of odd ways. If you have dialup, then the file might take a while to download. You can judge by how long the preview took - that's about 5-10% of the total. Any other 'must sees'? Heh! One or two... Franz Josef Glacier. Not too many glaciers in the world that are so accessible, and it's a dramatic setting. The drive from Christchurch through Arthurs Pass over the Southern Alps. You drive out through the flat and fertile Canturbury Plains with the snowcapped Southern Alps growing ever more prominent. Along the way in early summer you will see vast fields of wildflowers, their colours shimmering in pastel shades into the distance. Some heartbreakingly beautiful lakes, green grass sloping down to still, clear water, the mountains rising beyond. The pass itself - there's a lookout right at the top where you can see the highway passing over a viaduct that is a pretty spectacular engineering feat. Christchurch has possibly the world's best botanic garden, full of huge old trees, quiet gardens, a rose garden that sprawls over a couple of acres. I took a punt ride along the River Avon which circles the gardens and it was just heavenly. There's a restaurant up in the hills called "Sign of the Takahoe" which is modelled after a European hunting lodge. Possibly a bit pricey for dinner, but a devonshire tea is an affordable and thoroughly enjoyable experience. Great view, great ambience. Cadbury's Chocolate factory in Dunedin if you have a sweet tooth. You have to book ahead, but you'll be bombarded with samples and entertained by the jolly guide. The highlight is a closeup experience with tons of liquid chocolate cascading down in front of you. Head for one of the coffee shops on the Octagon a block away in the centre of the city to wash down the sweetness. And check out the railway station - an amazing confection of Victorian Gothic candy-striped stonework. There's an albatross colony at the end of a hair-raising drive beside the harbour and it is a wonderful experience to see the great birds gliding in. Seals and other wildlife are visible from the cliff walk. Kaikora has sperm whales and other marine mammals in great numbers feeding a few kilometres offshore where the fault that runs through the South Island runs into the sea, creating a series of ridges and trenches that provide plentiful food. The Marlborough Sounds are an intricate network of islands and peninsulas - great for sailing, but be careful of where you go - the wreck of the Admiral Lermontov cruiseliner has some awesome diving just under the surface. On the North Island, Wellington has the magnificent national museum of Te Papa. You need a day (or two) to do it justice. A stunning location on the water's edge, it is just full of awesome exhibits. The wildlife gallery alone could occupy a morning. It has the skeleton of a blue whale hung from the ceiling, stretching on and on and on... Check out the "beehive" while you are in town - it is a huge circular building that is part of the parliamentary buildings. Rotorua is another tick on the tourist trail. A little hokey, but the geysers and boiling mud are genuine enough, and the Maori cultural displays are great fun. If you want to see more genuine Maori folk, you'll need to go out to East Cape where the movie Whale Rider was filmed. A scenic location in its own right. Waitomo Caverns hold a special magic for me. There's an underground river running through the caves and you can go "blackwater rafting" underground. The highlight is seeing the thousands of glowworms above the silent water, forming a natural galaxy deep below the surface. North of Auckland are some giant trees in great forests and the stunningly beautiful setting of Waitangi in the bay of Islands, where the nation of New Zealand was born 160 years ago. Can you tell I love New Zealand? Chock a block full of scenery, friendly people, great beer, unspoilt and uncrowded but set up for tourists. No wonder the locals call it Godzone. Pete Oh yeah. A morning balloon flight out of Christchurch over the patchwork farmland with the distant mountains spotlit in the level light of the rising sun is unforgettable. |
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