Milford Sound and Fiordland Part Two

This vintage "sail" cruise boat took passengers out
for an overnight tour of the Sound.

That's our motor cat behind me. I wore my
flannel lined shirt and jacket for the cruise and
was pretty comfortable.

 

Our bus driver guide got us to the boat dock right on time and made us all promise we would be back at the bus by 3:30 at the latest. After the boat docked we had to go straight to the bus! Turns out he was so right and everyone cooperated. We were one of the first buses/vans out of the parking lot and as a result had no wait at the tunnel or more importantly huge lines at our one bathroom/cafe stop. 

The boats all move in the same course, going up the left side of the Sound and back on the right
side. This photo is looking over to the opposite cliffs and the Stirling Falls. You can get an idea of the perspective by seeing the white dot to the left of the falls. That's a big motor cat like ours and we'll pass close to those falls on the way back.

We went quite close to the vertical wall of cliffs
on the trip down the Sound and saw many
seasonal waterfalls like these two

And this one. This was one of the rare beaches.

A view from the railing, It was sometimes
hard to get a spot at the railing!

There were a number of cruise boats waiting, smaller and larger motor cats and one large vintage craft. Ours was one of the larger motor cats with 3 floors and inside and outside seating. We chose the top priced lunch option - a buffet served on board and it was excellent! Scott and I got into the line for the boat early so we were able to eat right away and get up top to see the views. We had been warned by our driver that some people would try to cut into the line. He was so right. We and our neighbors waited 20 minutes in line and when two couples stood next to us I asked them if they were trying to board our boat. They were. So I explained about the line and where they needed to go. They didn't want to but everyone gave them the look! "We're not letting you in," I explained. They finally moved down the line to try to cut in somewhere else. I got lots of thanks for everyone. We were told by others in the line that they were Russian and this happens often.

Now you can see one of the cruise boats more clearly passing on the other side

We froze up top facing into the wind on the trip to the Tasman Sea so moved to the deck at the stern. That's our wake looking back to Milford Sound village where we began our voyage.

This seasonal waterfall took a meandering 
route.

Milford Sound is 9.3 miles long from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise over 3,900 feet high. It has two permeant waterfalls, Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls but a big number of seasonal ones. Since they had lots of rain recently we saw over 20 of them and several of those were quite heavy. The annual mean rainfall is 252 inches! So it is one of the wettest areas in the world. But not this day. 

Scott rarely has to bundle up but he did on
this trip, at least at first

It was very windy however and it was difficult to walk on the top deck. As you can see from the photos we had considerable clouds. We wore our sweaters and rain jackets with the hoods up!  After some time managing that we retired to the back deck which was more protected. It's jaw dropping scenery and hard to take a picture that conveys this. You have to be there - and I hope everyone who reads this will!

Again, those are large cruise cats over on the other side. Sometimes the clouds were mid mountain!

Our turn at Stirling Falls

We got pretty close!

On the way back we had the wind behind us and
we could move back up top.

As I mentioned first, we had an easy trip home and were able to walk to our apartment from the drop off. We had planned well with lots of leftovers for dinner. We had planned to do a boat cruise on the lake the next day before our 5:30 PM flight to Brisbane. But after checking out of the apartment at 10 AM we had to drop off the car at the expected time of 10:30 or keep it another day. It was a little overcast so we regretfully decided to just hang out at the airport until our flight. Of course, after we dropped off the car, the sun came out! But the small airport was really nice with inside and outside eating and sitting. So the time went pleasantly and so did our 3 and 1/2 hour flight. So good-bye New Zealand - next post, Mooloolaba, Australia. 

Heading back to Milford Sound village. This is one of the safe anchorages and once had a lodge here. You can see some of the snow or glaciers up on the distant mountain.

Lady Bowen Falls

Looking at the end of the Sound.

Back in our apartment just after sunset - looking down the lake.