Tuesday, March 6, 2001

Mar 6 – Milford Sound


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Milford Sound has been rated as one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It is a 15 km long narrow fiord with 1200 to 1500 meter (4000 to 5000 ft) mountains cliffs on either side. Definitely one of the most amazing and memorable places I have been in my life. I wish we could have taken more pictures but I filled the memory card.

As the motorhome was not allowed on the road to the sound we took a bus tour from Te Anua. We stopped at a visitors center to look at some displays. They warned us about the sand fleas that would be swarming at the dock.

06-440-Sand Flies

Milford sound is in Fiordland National Park. The views going in were quite stunning.

06-070-To Milford

Convict labour was used to build this tunnel. It was one way and the bus just barely fit.

06-090-Tunnel

Zigzagging down the mountain to the fiord.

06-120-Switchback

Our first look from the dock.

06-150-From Harbour 06-130-Harbour

The sister ship, exactly like ours, coming in.

06-140-Sister Ship

It is hard to get a sense of scale but the peak below is 1 1/2 kilometers above the water.

06-160-Mitre Peak

Cameras were snapping like crazy everywhere. With good reason.

06-180-Milford Wanderer

06-171-Scale 06-190-Sleeping Lion

There weren’t as many waterfalls this time of year but there were still some nice ones. We will take the sunny weather over the rainy season, to see lots waterfalls, anytime.

06-200-Water Fall 06-210-Water Fall 06-260-Going out

They poked the bow right into one of the waterfalls.

06-320-Splash 06-300-Closer

The view along the coast once we made it out into the ocean. Thankfully it was a calm day.06-330-Coast 06-340-View back

Simply breathtaking!

06-400-View

After the boat, we took the bus back to Te Anua and then hopped in the motorhome and drove back to Queenstown for the night.

Horray! The rest of our luggage had been delivered to the campground sometime today.

We took the cable car up the mountain behind town to take the panorama I posted yesterday.

05-200-Bungee 05-240-Gondola

At the top there was one of many places you could go bungee jumping.

05-210-Bungee

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