rain rain go away!
Sarah and I were picked up at 7:15am on a very raining Sunday morning but were told that when going to Milford Sound, its best after a big rain storm because the waterfalls are spectacular. So we were grateful for the water, but hoped it would clear up very soon. Unfortunately, no one heard this wish for about 7 hours. Instead, we drove in a bus full of 10 people through the mountains and plains of southern New Zealand and didn't see much. We did, however, have a great tour guide/driver who told us more than I will ever remember about the history of New Zealand from its indigenous mammals, plants, insects, etc to random trivia.
Things I do remember:
1) There are only 2 native mammals to the island. Sheep is not one of them. There are several species of bats and dolphins.
2) There are no snakes in New Zealand. This is great news for backpackers, who now only have to worry about the ever changing weather that has been known to bring hail in summer unexpectedly. They do have reptiles such as lizards and geckos.
3) When Captain Cook explored New Zealand, there was very little plant life, only a few native plants amidst the rocky terrain. One of these grows 30 cm a year and the ones we saw were hundreds of years old because they were a few feet high.
4) Most everything else (plants, land species, marine species) were brought to the island for profit reasons - i.e. Wool, fish, etc.
5) Milford Sound is not technically a sound. It's in Fiordland National Park and is actually a fjord. What is the difference you ask? Well, a fjord is made from volcanic activity and is the pool of glacier water bordered by steep cliffs. A sound on the other hand is just an ocean inlet, much wider than a fjord. duh.
6) It took several ice ages to form Milford Sound
So back to the day...We stopped a couple times along the way to see the waterfalls but could never see the tops of the mountains! We saw Mirror Lakes, which are supposed to be a reflecting pool, instead it was rainy and foggy and very unclimactic.
We finally got to Milford Sound and boarded the boat for a 2pm cruise. There are 2 permanent waterfalls, and they were both exploding with water. Due to the heavy rain, there were at least 300 more waterfalls which was magnificent to see.
We were not going to come all the way to the older end of the world and go to one of the most photographed tourism spots in the entire country just to sit inside the boat and drink tea! We braved the elements and were cold and wet, but golly did we have some great photos!!
After an hour or so the Gods heard our cries and the sun came out! Sarah and I were grateful to take off our rain gear for a shot of clear skies! We ended up taking many duplicate photos of cloudy and then sunny!
The drive back was supposed to be sleepy time, but the sky was crystal clear, so we were finally able to see all of the mountains, waterfalls and valleys that we missed in the morning. We arrived back in Queenstown around 8pm and had dinner overlooking the Lake, just in time for another great 10pm sunset. We returned to our new room and found that our three new roommates, all from Sweeden or Germany, were already in their PJ's ready for bed! Yay!
We both slept pretty well night #2 and got ready for our driving adventure across the south island!
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