adventurethroughtravel: April 19th, Queenstown to Milford Sound

What an incredible adventure! We left Queenstown at 9:00 and you could see the frost line on the mountains 100 meters above road level. It was very cold with a small amount of rain in the air. When we passed Kingston heading down to Te Aneu we were driving above the frost line and the rain turned into snow. We went back to Kingston to decide what to do, and perhaps head back to Queenstown. Fortunately we asked a fellow who stopped at the café who had driven up from Invercargill how the road was and he said they were bare. We decided to press on. We passed through Kingston where we saw the Kingston Flyer with a full head of steam about to depart. About 40 kilometers from Te Aneu the hills and fields were completely covered with snow and we felt it would not be possible to get to Milford Sound by 4:10 when the vessel we had booked accommodation on, the “Milford Wanderer” was due to sail. We continued toward Te Aneu through a mild blizzard with snow freezing on my visor. However, after 15 kilometers we dropped in altitude and the road started to clear up.

We stopped for gas at Te Aneu, bordering the Fiord National Park and a fellow customer told us he just came from Milford Sound and weather was better there. We continued on and the scenery was superb. Initially it is rolling farmland atop a terminal moraine and then through alpine meadows and beautiful forests on the lower slopes of jagged snow covered mountains. Near here we passed through the 45th parallel, the same latitude as Milford between Truro and Halifax in the northern hemisphere. The vegetation changes at the Divide, the lowest east/ west pass in the Southern Alps. From here you enter a beach forest where the road rises to the Homer tunnel, where the approaches are surrounded by high walled, iced covered mountains. The Homer tunnel is 1306 meters long with a slope to the west. It was started in 1935 and was not completed in 1953. The Homer town site used during construction never saw sunshine from May to September. You emerge in the Cleddau Canyon where there is a tremendous series of switchbacks down to the ocean. Milford Sound only has a population of 170 and is located in a unique wilderness area with seals, dolphins, and pristine wilderness generated with a copious annual rainfall, complete with ever present waterfalls and mists.

We are staying on the Milford Wander, a 1992 build based on a 1900 flat bottomed design used for the costal trade in New Zealand waters.. It is a gorgeous vessel, and we sailed through the Milford Fjord and then anchored in a cove where kayaking, swimming were available (but the water is only 45 degrees F). This is one of 14 fjords in New Zealand and the scenery is absolutely pristine. We had a great meal and will stay on board overnight in Ferguson’s Cove.