Eighth Wonder of the World

Tuesday 25 March

What an epic day! 36 years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Milford Sound on my gap year - Louis had never been.

Auntie Liz came with us for the day - showing us all the key spots to visit along the route from Te Anau to Milford Sound including camping spots for future visits. Our first port of call was Te Anau Downs where boat transfers leave to take hikers to the start of the Milford Track - a 53.5km, 4 day walking track along glacial valleys, through ancient rainforests & past cascading waterfalls. It was a gorgeous calm day and this end of the lake looked so tranquil.

We popped into many of the DOC camps along the road: -

Henry Creek - on several levels, lots of woodland areas for camper vans but not so good for caravans.

Walter Creek - very small and tight, again not caravan friendly

Totara - lots of open spaces at the main area and also down the track to the river (where Liz got a job photographing a group of Spanish travellers!)

Deer Flat - we whizzed past the turning so need to visit on our next trip

Kiosk Creek - missed that one too

Upper Eglington - absolutely tiny, more of a layby with 2-3 spaces for mohos or campers

Cascade Creek - probably our favourite spot with heaps of space, flat areas, open air and trees and some nice shelters for prepping & eating meals - and stunning mountain views.

We stopped in at Knobs Flat for the flushing toilets and spotted 2 beautiful bell birds singing in the mingimingi bush in the carpark - you can camp here too but at $30pp per night, versus DOC at $15pp per night.

We paused at the Mirror Lakes that reflect the Earl Mountains in oxbow lakes of tannin darkened waters, for coffee - then again a little further down the road to look back at more reflections.

By this point we were heading up into the steeper glacial hills and valleys of Milford, away from the wide open riverbed valleys. The scenery was often jaw dropping. We made the obligatory stop at Monkey Creek (along with several busloads of tourists) with its amazing vista into Fiordland, but sadly not a kea in sight (despite all the warning signs not to feed them).

After that came the Chasm Walk with a lovely bushwalk into the gorge where the Cleddau River plummets deep through the rock chasm it has carved over the millennia. The bridge here was washed out in 2020, giving some idea of how violent the torrential water flow can still be. The sculpted rocks on the far side of the river are also the result of rocks and eddies carving out the stone of the area.

We halted in the queue for the Homer Tunnel - a one way tunnel working on traffic lights, drilling 1.2km through the mountains, work started on this in 1935 (paused during the war) and was completed in 1953. The tunnel is cut into the granite of the Darran Mountains and has no lining, you look up at the sheer mountain rock above and around you as you drive through!

Auntie Liz also got us a great deal on the Cruise Milford boat leaving at 1.45pm so we had to get a wiggle on - it’s not who you know, rather who they know! Thank you to Lisa for sorting us out.

Under a stunningly clear blue sky the cruise on the Sound was a phenomenal experience. It really is the eighth wonder of the world!

Mitre Peak may be the money shot around here - it is the tallest peak emerging directly from an ocean fiord anywhere in the world - but once you set sail it almost blends in with the other incredible steep, tall cliffs around you. Some were predominantly bare rock, others beautifully adorned with hanging gardens of trees, bushes, mosses and lichens. In some areas there were tree avalanches where one tree had lost its grip and fallen down the cliff face, taking all below it in its path.

Milford Sound was named for Milford Haven in Wales, birthplace of John Grono a seal hunter who named it erroneously. It is in fact a Fjord or Fiord - a carved glacial valley flooded by seawater - rather than a Sound - which is a river valley draining to the sea which has been flooded. Fun fact - although Captain Cook sailed past this area twice, assiduously mapping the coastline as he went, he did not even notice or enter the fjord, as it is quite well concealed once on the open ocean.

As we cruised out through the entrance of the Sound to the Tasman Sea, the captain pointed out the rock face where two tectonic plates collided and slid one portion of the land further than the other which is fascinating to see represented so clearly. Somewhat terrifyingly, the South Island has recorded evidence of cataclysmic tectonic movement along the Alpine Fault going back over 8000 years, and through the scientific magic of carbon dating it has been established that large seismic events occur roughly every 330 years putting us in the run up to the next big quake along this fault.

Heading back in, we spotted a couple of basking seals, teenage lads thrown out of the family by alpha males, enjoying the sunshine on a warm rock.

Cruising back along the northern edge of the sound the captain steered us in close to get us bow passengers splashed by Sterling Falls - then suddenly, in an ominous follow up to the big quake warning he had just shared with us, a tsunami warning came in over the radio as a 6.8 quake hit Southland - yikes!

Sterling was the biggest and most permanent of the falls in the Sound, but there are many others dotted here and there, high, low and tumbling almost from the skies. Bowen Falls was the first & last one we encountered right near the port - the tumbling cascade threw off a huge amount of mist and water into the air which you could see before rounding the cliff to view the actual fall. This is quite a dry patch for Milford so the falls were fairly lightweight.

We made it back to the dock ok and reports confirmed no major damage from the quake despite the emergency alert which we all received on our phones just after 3.30pm. It all seemed very relaxed so we followed suit, taking a detour back to the car park to view Mitre Peak in all its majesty, then heading out to Deep Water Basin to see all the cray fishing boats and various buildings which Liz' husband Brendan had constructed there.

We wound out way back home through the same stunning scenery, marvelling again at the beauty of the landscape. The cracked rock side of the cliff, the Hollyford Valley, the Cascade and Pop's Lookout all got a visit this time, I snoozed through the tunnel by mistake but by 6ish we were back at Te Anau hearing tales of shaking TVs and wine bottles from Brendan and apparently missing an aftershock of 5.0 at 3.56pm.

Fish & chips for dinner with Liz & Brendan and an early night after our big day!