Up with the sun, I headed down the "getting old really fast" steep hill from the Hippo Lodge to catch my early morning bus to Milford Sound. The ride was a long one, approximately 6 hours and along the way, we stopped at the Fiordland National Park, the town of Te Anau, Mirror Lakes and the Chasm (a stone work of art naturally created by water and air). I am not a great photographer by any means, actually I am not even a very good photographer, but the Mirror Lakes made me the BEST photographer around! It was so easy to get a beautiful picture.
Southern New Zealand is home to the Fiordland which was well known to Maori, who have many legends recounting its formation and naming. Demi-god Tute Rakiwhanoa is said to have carved the rugged landscape from formless rock, hewing out the steep sided valleys with his magical adzes.
When we arrived at the entrance to the sound, we boarded our boat cruise and off we went. We were educated on the difference between a fiord and a sound. A fiord is found in locations where current or past glaciation extended to sea level. It is formed when a glacier (carving its typical U-shaped valley) meets the sea and melts. This leaves a narrow, steep sided valley into which the sea floods. A sound is often formed by the sea flooding a river valley. This produces a long inlet where the sloping valley hillsides descend to sea-level and continue beneath the water to form a sloping sea floor. So...Milford Sound, having been carved by a glacier, is technically a fiord. Well, it's beautiful no matter what you call it. Amazing waterfalls, seal colonies and stunning rock formations. At places like this, nature can make you speechless...truly amazing!
After our two-tour, we were in a rush, I headed to the ladies room - really fast, and guess what...?? The damn bus left me! That's 3 times now that I've had that pit feeling in my stomach!!! Sometimes traveling alone can be a pain in the XSS! There wasn't anyone I could send to the bus and ask the driver to wait one minute. Uggghhh...thank god the Kiwis are so nice. There were several other tour companies leaving back to Queenstown and one very nice Kiwi driver, said "No worries mate, I'll give you a lift". Geez...I was exhausted after the LONG bus ride and boat tour and also pretty ticked off about being left - again I started crying - what a girlie girl! I arrived back at the Hippo Lodge and crashed really hard. It was a great nature day, with a slight bummer twist at the end, but all worked out fine and the sound/fiord was worth it!
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