The Welshman's Revenge
Our final day in Fiordland involved another touristy boat trip, this time to Milford Sound. In many ways it was similar to Doubtful Sound, only the cliffs were taller, the weather better and the waterfalls spuming from the hanging valleys (go look it up in a geology primer) more spectacular following a night's heavy rain (or 'light shower' as they described it - Milford Sound apparently gets seven and a half metres, or twenty-five feet of rain every year).
The trip started with a two and a half hour coach trip up the Milford road. We had planned to drive, but the weather forecast indicated snow might make the road difficult. Since our hire car was neither four wheel drive nor suited to snow chains, we decided to let the expert do the driving.
As it happened, this was a good decision. Yes, we had to share the bus with a couple of dozen strangers (emphasising the strange, though I'm sure they felt the same about us). But we also had a running commentary and history of the area, delivered in what can only be described as a sardonic manner by our coach driver. Most of the jokes were groan-inducing or worse, but it helped to while away the drive through stunning scenery and I probably learned a thing or two. Captain Cook, for instance, didn't even notice the place when he passed by (its entrance is quite well hidden).
It was left to a Welshman called Grono to discover it. A seal hunter operating out of Sydney, he found himself on the southwest coast of New Zealand, and needing some kind of shelter from a terrible storm. Entering what he thought was a shallow bay, he was surprised to find it open out into something altogether more spectacular. And it is astonishing - narrower than Doubtful Sound (only four hundred metres across in places) , but with seven-hundred metre vertical granite cliffs, overhanging at the top. One mountain peak is a mile above the water. Faced by such unparalleled splendour he decided to name it after a rather flatter Sound he knew from home - Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
If you could only do one sound, I'd suggest learning to sign. But of the two, Doubtful was probably the better trip. Milford is a bigger deal - they fly people in from Queenstown for the day and there's more than one company operating boats on the Sound, which makes it seems somehow sullied. In the end, we didn't see much wildlife in either Sound, though I did spot a Crested Penguin making its way along a rocky shore in Milford. I guess they were just waiting for all the tourists to go home so they could have the place back to themselves.
Next: Monkey
The trip started with a two and a half hour coach trip up the Milford road. We had planned to drive, but the weather forecast indicated snow might make the road difficult. Since our hire car was neither four wheel drive nor suited to snow chains, we decided to let the expert do the driving.
As it happened, this was a good decision. Yes, we had to share the bus with a couple of dozen strangers (emphasising the strange, though I'm sure they felt the same about us). But we also had a running commentary and history of the area, delivered in what can only be described as a sardonic manner by our coach driver. Most of the jokes were groan-inducing or worse, but it helped to while away the drive through stunning scenery and I probably learned a thing or two. Captain Cook, for instance, didn't even notice the place when he passed by (its entrance is quite well hidden).
It was left to a Welshman called Grono to discover it. A seal hunter operating out of Sydney, he found himself on the southwest coast of New Zealand, and needing some kind of shelter from a terrible storm. Entering what he thought was a shallow bay, he was surprised to find it open out into something altogether more spectacular. And it is astonishing - narrower than Doubtful Sound (only four hundred metres across in places) , but with seven-hundred metre vertical granite cliffs, overhanging at the top. One mountain peak is a mile above the water. Faced by such unparalleled splendour he decided to name it after a rather flatter Sound he knew from home - Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
If you could only do one sound, I'd suggest learning to sign. But of the two, Doubtful was probably the better trip. Milford is a bigger deal - they fly people in from Queenstown for the day and there's more than one company operating boats on the Sound, which makes it seems somehow sullied. In the end, we didn't see much wildlife in either Sound, though I did spot a Crested Penguin making its way along a rocky shore in Milford. I guess they were just waiting for all the tourists to go home so they could have the place back to themselves.
Next: Monkey
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