Rich and I were really looking forward to the dramatic landscape of Fiordland. Home to fourteen stunning fiords spanning one hundred and thirty five miles of coastline, Fiordland has achieved World Heritage Status. The most accessible fiord is Milford Sound and that was where Rich and I were headed.
The drive into the Fiordland National Park felt like we were driving into another country. The landscape changed dramatically from farmland and green rolling hills, to mountainous terrain surrounding huge lakes with crystal clear waters.
As we drove to Te Anau, our base for exploring Fiordland for the next three nights, we passed the Clifden Suspension Bridge. Opened in 1899 it’s New Zealand’s longest wooden suspension bridge, spanning one hundred and eleven and a half metres, crossing the Waiau River. Rich loves a good bridge so we spent a few minutes taking a look around it!
Manapouri was a small town we passed through on our way to Te Anau and it provided the perfect setting for us to stretch our legs during the long drive. With views of the Cathedral mountain range surrounding the lake and perfectly still water, we opted to spend a bit of time here and set about a skimming competition!
It was a close competition, after spending fifteen minutes selecting our skimming stones, we took it in turns to see who could get the highest number of skips off one stone. Rich took the win with his final stone skipping three times across the glass surface of the lake, (we were both pretty bad at skimming stones). He was modest in his celebrations, I’m sure you can imagine.
We reached Te Anau at lunchtime and had a lovely picnic lunch by the lake before checking into our hostel, doing our food shopping and settling in for the night.
The following morning we had an early start, with a two hour drive up to Milford Sound to catch our boat for a cruise around the fiord. The drive took us through stunning landscapes as we drove along the mountain road. The size of the mountains almost incomprehensible until there was something in front of them to give their height some perspective.
We stopped off at Mirror Lake on our way, it wasn’t the most spectacular lake we’ve seen in New Zealand but we loved it for it’s clever sign, reflected in the lake.
We enjoyed a two hour cruise through Milford Sound and given that it rains for approximately two hundred days a year there, we were lucky that the rain held off despite there being quite a few clouds in the sky.
The fiord cruise passed through well known sights such as Mitre Peak, Fairy Falls, Seal Rock, Stirling Falls and Harrison Cove. The later being the base for our kayaking adventure in Fiordland at the end of our cruise.
We soaked in the three hundred and sixty dregree views from the top of the boat, enjoyed lunch on board along with free tea and coffee and thanked our lucky stars for being able to spend the day in such a beautiful, unspoilt, untouched place.
The dramatic part of the cruise came when our boat sailed into the spray at the bottom of Stirling Falls, one of two permanent water falls within Milford Sounds that is fed by the glacier above. As we stood on the front deck, we were in prime position to get drenched, feel the freezing cold fresh water fall down on us and have a ‘glacial facial’. We certainly got drenched and it was definitely cold!
When we arrived at Harrison Cove we departed our cruise and swapped the comfort of our boat for kayaks. If we felt insignificant in size whilst on the boat cruising through the fiord, we were even more so paddling around in our kayaks.
Gliding along in our kayaks with mountains rising up out of the water either side of us was awesome, humbling in fact, reminding us that there is a great big world out there and we are only one tiny part of it.
We paddled around Harrison Cover for an hour and went up the glacial river that feeds into it. We tasted the cold fresh water in the river and tried to take a photo that captured the enormity of our surroundings.
The final part of our Milford Sound adventure involved an underwater viewing observatory to see the life beneath the surface of the fiord. We didn’t get to see any dolphins or whales but we saw an abundance of fish, mussels, sea anemones and starfish. The most impressive thing we saw was actually the point at which the fresh water surface layer met the salt water beneath!
We loved our day out in Milford Sound, both on the cruise and in the kayaks. After the two hour drive back to Te Anau, we were shattered and hungry. Finishing the day with a hearty meal and an early night, we couldn’t have been happier.
The next morning over breakfast Rich said that there he felt an earthquake at around one o’clock in the morning. I was none the wiser, I know I’m a heavy sleeper but I now know that I can sleep through a 4.8 magnitude earthquake! It certainly reminded us again that we were in earthquake territory having witnessed the devastation in Christchurch only a couple of weeks earlier.
We spent our final day in Te Anau relaxing at the hostel and enjoying the tranquility of lakeside living before heading to the more populated, activity packed Queenstown.
Lambs on the loose 
Fabulous once again Sonia. You certainly know how to capture the moment and to pass it on to us envious onlookers!! See you soon xxxx
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Thanks Maria! See you soon :o) xx
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Lucky you. Pity I let you down by not teaching you to skim stones better. X
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You’ll have to give me lessons when I get back Dad. I can see many more skimming competitions with Rich in my future!xx
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