Nebelhom's Miscellaneous: Milford Sound and the Underwater Observatory (9.3.2014)

We rose today bright and early to make our way to the famous Milford Sound, apparently one of the most beautiful places in the world. As the weather forecast promised a warm, sunny day (very unusual as about 200 days of the year are filled with rain), we looked forward to our trip "a lot"! When we left at 7:00 am the mountain tops were still covered in mist and dew was still on the grass fields, giving the road up to the Milford Sound (about 2 -2½ hours from Te Anau) a rather mystical aura. On the way up, there were already several vantage points from which we could enjoy the beautiful scenery. One very creepy experience was going through Homer Tunnel, as the tunnel is rather crudely carved out of the rock. I couldn't help but sing the Gregorian Chant from the movie "The Hobbit". Isi was not impressed. The further we got, the narrower the streets became, but thankfully due to our early start, we did not encounter much traffic. We were warned in advance by our Motel owner and by several guides that the traffic can be a bit more busy than one might expect in such a remote area of the world.

When we finally arrived, we got ourselves our tickets for our booked trip to the Sound, together with a one hour Kayak trip and a look at the Underwater Observatory. But one step at a time. A Sound is originally the name for an inland entrance from the sea into the mainland that was created over several thousand years by a river. Interestingly, all but one Sound in New Zealand was actually formed by glaciers, so they should actually be called, for example, Milford Fiord (or so the guide told us).

Yet again, the scenery took our breath away. Worryingly enough, we are starting to get used to that ;). As it was such a nice day, we stood on the rear deck on the top of the boat (The "Spirit of Milford") and enjoyed the very witty, but informed guide, while constantly trying to find a compromise between trying out all the features of our camera and simply enjoying the scenery.

At one point, we took a closer look at the Stanley Waterfall, one of two waterfalls in Milford Sound that was fed by glacial ice. The fine water spray was very refreshing on our faces and while the guide was just mentioning that it also has the effect of a fountain of youth ("Your face will be so refreshed, you will feel ten years younger"), I was able to observe one of those rare Isabel Vogel Sprints. In this case to the front of the deck. I have never seen her run so fast, a feat made even more impressive by the uneven ground due to the waves rocking the boat ;)

On the way back, we went off-board for a round of beginners kayaking in Harrison Cove with a group of ten others. We didn't dare take our camera with us and judging by how wet my clothes got, that was a wise choice ;) Kayaking is cool. I have done it once before and like last time my main problem was to have the strokes on either side to be of equal strength so that I do not swerve to the left or right (a problem Isi did not encounter in the slightest).

Afterwards, we took a look at the Underwater Observatory, a large floating structure that has a circular observation room about 10 m below sea level to be able to observe fish and other marine organisms in their own habitat, among them the for New Zealand very typical black coral (which is white by the way). The Milford Sound has a very particular marine fauna. As it is one of the rainiest areas of the world (it has more than twice the amount of rainfall in comparison to the Amazon Rain Forest), but the sheer cliff faces do not allow for earth erosion into the sea, lots of tannin from the plants is washed into the Sound where the first 2-3 meters are exclusively fresh water with these tannins inside. This has the effect of making the water much darker than is usual. As a consequence, marine organisms that usually live at around 50 m below sea level, can be found here as high as 10 m below the sea. I was not particularly interested in that aspect of the tour, but Isi took a couple of good shots.

Afterwards, we made our way back and now we are relaxing in our little Motel room and looking forward to tomorrow's ship cruise onto the Doubtful Sound.