Te Anau to Milford Sound to Queenstown (21 Jun 09)

Oh, this was quite an anticipated trip as Milford Sound is said to be one of the scenic place that you have to go if you were to travel to New Zealand. With hopes high and long journey ahead, first thing first was to get to the pick-up point, Pop Inn’s Café. Well, the café was a bit of a distance from the hostel that I were staying and I did not manage to shed off much load from my baggage, so it was quite a feat to carry all my barang and walk a good 15-20 mins. Luckily on the way, I met a very nice Kiwi ah peh that helped me carry some of my stuffs. There are really some nice Kiwi people out there…

It was a scenic ride along the way - there are massive glacial craved valleys, Homer tunnel, Mirror Lake that we passed through. The mirror lake reminded me of Lake Matterson, where we can get “View of the view”, well mirror lake is the river reflection like a mirror.

I had also become colder endurable, if it was just like a picture moment, then I would forgo wearing my jacket. But if a short walk was involved and more then 15 mins, then I would not be a hero, however we could still find some Caucasians that doesn’t seems to be afraid of cold, and wearing long sleeve is enough.

Well, another stop over was a walk forest layered walk to look at the Charsm, I seemed to forget what it is… hmm, well just another bush walk…

At Milford Sound, we board the Red Boat Cruise and lunch was part of the package. It was buffet style, so we could fill our tummy real full. Milford Sound was a glacier carved fiord with forest clinging to the cliffs that runs on both sides. There are waterfalls that cascade down some of the cliffs and the Red Boat Cruise will steer very close to it for a good photo to be taken. Maybe I had seen too much mountains, waterfalls etc, hence I did not find Milford Sound to be very magnificent or fascinating.

The Underwater Observatory was a bit disappointing too. True to the fact we could get very deep to the sea, but the fishes and corals seemed nothing to be faved about. Diving seems to be a more eye opening experience but that comes with a cost.

At the end of it was a direct long, long ride from Milford Sound to Queenstown stopping at the Pop Inn’s Café for snacks and toilet break. For this trip, I actually preferred the drive to Milford Sound than the fiord itself. Maybe Doubtful Sound will be a different experience, but I did not have a chance to do it.