A Day in Milford Sound

We had an early start today because we needed to catch a water taxi from Deepwater Basin to Sandfly Point to begin our hike to Giant Gate falls, which is also the last leg of the Milford track. 

New Zealand has a number of multi-day (3-5 day) “great walks”. They call them tracks and now that I’ve seen a portion of a few of them, I have goals to hike them all. The Milford Track is the most popular and you have to register for this about a year in advance because they only let 40 people begin a day. There are huts along the way to stay in and while the hikes are challenging, they are not something you need to be a mountaineer to do. My friends, Ann and David Wilson, are the first ones who told me about it. They did the Milford Track in 2019 and while they are quite fit, they are of retirement age. Goals! 

So, our peppy boat driver zipped us across the sound to the drop-off point and said he would come back in 4 hours. 

The hike was very easy and pretty level, but the path was often stony, which did make our feet sore by the end. But, oh boy, was it beautiful! Most people don’t know this, based on the state of my houseplants, but I have a thing for green and growing things. And I simply adore moss. I go for walks a lot in Lynchburg and my favorite time to do this is just after the rain or during a light mist because the moss comes alive and shows off its color and shape.

Milford Sound seems to be in a perpetual state of mist or rain. But, I was not prepared for the veritable gluttony of green I would see on this walk. The trees were covered with moss. The rocks were covered with moss. Even the moss was covered with yet more moss! The rest of the family had to keep waiting for me because of how many times I stopped to look and take photos. 

Also, there were waterfalls. 

After our return from the hike, we rested, ate lunch, and then headed to the cruise terminal to catch our boat ride through the sound to the edge of the Tasman Sea. 

When we checked in, we found out there had been a nasty accident on the Milford road earlier that day. A van had rolled and was blocking both lanes of traffic. Seven people were injured and two were flown to a hospital. So, no tour busses had gotten through for hours and they delayed our cruise to see if any other passengers could show up. At that moment, only 7 passengers had checked in for a 100 passenger cruise. We were five of those! 

After an hour, the various cruise ship companies started working together to gather all the remnant passengers (about 40 of us) and they put us on a smaller boat together and we set off. 

The boat was two stories. We immediately went to the open top and stayed there for the duration of the cruise.

Then it started to rain in earnest. It was cold. It was wet. But none of that mattered. Well, it mattered a bit to Lucy, but she got over it. 

For the next two hours, we cruised the sound in a state of bliss. Waterfalls everywhere! Even more so with the rain. Big wide ones. Long and thin ones. Some that gushed with water, others that only trickled down. Some that streaked into many fingers. Others that began with abundance and then disappeared into the air, never seeming to reach the sound at all! At one huge waterfall, the boat driver backed us up nearly into the falls so that we were drenched with the spray that legend says will make you ten years younger. The kids say this isn’t true. 

Photos can only convey so much. Here is some video. 

Milford was a mystical, magical, wonderful place. And, I plan to return one day.

Addendum:

While Milford Sound was like a fairy kingdom, it was not quite heaven on earth in every respect. 

There is one resident (really an army of residents) that are on the devil’s side of eternity. 

The sandfly. 

These bugs are the size of gnats and drawn to any exposed areas of humans with sweet blood (Tom!). They seem to be especially fond of ankles and necks, but hands and faces will suffice. If you so much as pause to sigh over a spectacular vista, they will rise up by the hundreds and attack. The sandfly slashes at the skin with a knife-like mouth. They are, essentially, the back-alley mugger to their needle sharing cousin, the mosquito. 

It is because of the sandfly that Tom does not want to do the Milford Track with me. So, I’m up for others who want to take it on.