New Zealand day 8

We woke up Monday morning and headed straight away to Milford sound. The drive is about 4 hours but there are some beautiful sights along the way.
Our first stop was to the mirror lakes. The lakes are just small little ponds really that run parallel with the road. You walk down on a wooden walkway along the water. It doesn't really look like any big deal and then you look down. When you look down at the water you have to give it a second glance because you are not quite sure if it's really water or another set of mountains on the ground. The lakes are a a spitting image of the mountains, clouds, and trees that lay behind it. We took a lot of pictures, and the only reason you can tell it is water and not just an upside down pictures is because of the slight movement of the water. The pictures is crystal clear. it's beautiful. The water is also clear straight down to the bottom. you can see fish, rocks, and everything else that was in that water. It is also home to eels, but because they are nocturnal, we didn't get a chance t see any.
While we are at the mirror lakes a bus load of people arrived as well. Well the roads are very windy and slow so we did not want to get stuck behind a bus. So we took off for the car and headed on our way.
There were a few more sights along the way but we were running late so we decided to skip a few. The whole drive up is breathtaking. We drive through a whole string of mountains. Many of them still had snow on the tops of them.
As you drive up you have to go through a tunnel that is ridiculously long. It is a one way tunnel and it is called the Homer tunnel. The tunnel is 1270 meters long! So at both ends there is a stop light. When the light is green you can go. When it is red the people from the other side are going. The light takes about 5 minutes to change. Just outside the tunnel there are tons of small waterfalls flowing off the mountains and a few medium size ones. The mountains are towering, so the waterfalls are very long. There is ice at the top of the mountains and it falls to the ground. There was a very large cave of ice below the mountain that had recently broken off. Just underneath the cave was a river. We didn't go down to it because again we were short on time and really ice was noting exciting anymore after 6 hours of tramping around on a glacier.
It was finally our turn to go through the tunnel. There are no lights in the tunnel and it sure is creepy! Water drips down into it and it is just straight through a mountain. We were literally driving through the mountain. The tunnel was built on a slope because otherwise you would drive straight into another mountain or something like that.
The tunnel was built in 1935 to give work to the locals during the depression. It was stopped a few time for harsh weather conditions and the world war 2 and finally finished in 1954. The scary thing is the lights only run in the summer because it is too dangerous to stop and wait for the light outside of the tunnel due to avalanches. I haven't quite figured out how you know a car is coming from the other side?? Pretty scary if you ask me.
So we made our way through the seemingly neverending tunnel (I wonder how many people try and hold their breath through that tunnel) and another 15 minutes to Milford sound. I think we probably got behind three of the worst drivers I've ever seen in my life on the way to Milford. the drivers rode their brakes the whole way! It's a wonder any of them have brake pads left.
We arrived and parked in the car park, then walked about 400 meters to the wharf. We got our tickets to the boat and waited for it to board.
Just a little information about Milford sound. It is not actually a sound at all but a Fiord. A fiord is a valley caused by glaciers. When the glaciers recede these valleys are formed. Sounds are formed by flooding. It was created 6 million years ago. Milford sound is 16 Kilometers long and leads straight into the ocean. 16 kilometers is about 10 miles long. The average depth is 330 meters deep which is about 1082 feet. It rains 182 days out of the year and has an annual rainfall of 7 meters which is about 22 feet. It is the wettest place in New Zealand and one of the wettest places in the world. When it rains, the moutains are so straight up and down that the whole mountain just gets covered with water and it looks like one massive waterfall! They get some pretty crazy weather.
Our guide told us that they have about 5 earthquakes a day, but they don't have big ones very often and you can't feel the small ones. We also heard that the glacier is waiting for a large earthquake because it is right on the fault line and it's way over do. New Zealand soundsl ike its one big earthquake disaster waiting to happen.
The mountains along side of the water can be up to 1 mile high straight up. Trees can't grow in the moutains because they are solid rock, so they find cracks to bury their roots in. They get too heavy and fall off taking every tree below them with it. It's like a domino effect all the way down the mountain. Don't ask me how trees find cracks, not like they can walk around and say hey this is a good spot I'll plant here. He never quite explained that to me...
Okay so back to the trip. We loaded the boat and Meribeth and I sat in the very front so we could see everything. The guide came up to us and warned us that the anchor was on that side of the boat so it might cause a little spray and get us wet. We were like oh okay a little spray, no problem, we can handle it. Well as the boat took off we got a little spray in the face and it was so windy you could barely keep your eyes open, so we moved behind the inside cabiin so it would block the wind from us. Just as we got up this tsunami of a wave hit our seats and soaked the whole side of the boat we were sititng on. Talk about timing! The guide said aren't you glad you weren't sitting there now. I said well you said a little spray would hit us, you didn't say the whole ocean would try and jump in the boat. He apoligized and said he is used to living in water all year round so a little spray to him might be a little more water to other people. Ya, just a little... haha
So we made our way to some new seats that we were sure to stay dry because it was freezing. The view was just spectacular. I can honestly say the most beautiful and amazing thing I have ever seen. The pictures I have taken do it no justice. The water is a teal blue, huge waterfalls cascade down the sides of the mountains, and the moutnains are so talll you practically have to lay down on your back to see the tops. The shocking thing is your eyes can't even take it all in, the moutnains are higher than they even appear to your eyes. There was a water fall coming off the moutain that is three times the size of niagra falls and it wasn't even covering the whole mountain.
Clouds sat on the water and drifted in and out. At one point you couldn't see a thing because the clouds took over the sound. Once we came out of the cloud the water was once again visible and the giant mountains took over! The only place there was not a mountain was where the water led out into the ocean.
Sitting on some rocks was a group of seals sunbathing. There must have been about 15 of them laying on a rock so peacefully. Their coats must really keep them warm! As we were leaving the rock with all the seals on them, our captain called out that we had dolphins riding the bow line of our boat. Everyone in the boat (which there was about 15-20 of us) sprinted to the front of the boat to catch of a view of the bottlenose dolphin.
They were directly underneath the front of the boat. There were probably about 5 of them. they swim in the bow line of the boats because they don't have to do as much work. The water being pushed from the boat helps them swim. They never stop swimming from the day they are born to the day they die. They just shut off half their brain at a time or something like that. The dolphins weaved through the water so gracefully, every couple of seconds they made a jump out of the water. I blindly took pictures of the water hoping I would catch one jump out at just the right time. I did get a few. Over to the left of the boat the dolphins were swimming in sync with each other. There were about 2 of them, one was a baby, and they jumped in and out of the water staying in line with the boat. It was beautiful. the little baby not quite making it out as far as the mom. It just made my day! The guide said about 1 in every 4 groups gets to see dolphins. so it was our lucky day!!
The dolphins left us and it was very cold so I decided to go sit inside and watch the views from the window. There was a large building over on the side of the sound and I thought what the heck is out here?? I wonder what they use that for. As we got closer I realized, we had turned around, and that was the wharf we started out at. These boats are sneaky with their turns. I had no idea!
So we were back, we took a few more pictures and then headed off to the car. It was about a 2 hour drive back to the nearest town. we decided to check out the restaraunt to see if we wanted to eat there. It was pretty pricey so we decided on waiting until we got to town.
We got to Te Anau, which is known for the starting point for long hikes. The Milford track is one of the most famous. I'm not sure how long it is or where it goes, but I imagine it makes it's way to the Milford sound and it takes like a week or something like that.
Once we got there we checked into a hostel and found somewhere to eat. We chose and Italian place. Meribeth got some pasta and i got some apricot chicken thing. I thought I was getting pasta but it was a pizza. haha well at least I'm trying new things. It was wonderful too. It was chicken and some vegetables and it had an apricot type sauce on it. Mmmm it was good.
We were pretty tired so we went back to the hostel and checked out internet. Meribeth went down to the lake to write in her journal. I went to look for her and couldn't find her, so I went and looked for her in her room but no sign. I was walking out when I saw a newspaper. I decided to sit and read it for a little while.
At that time a couple of guys walked in, a few minutes later they started talking to me. They were a little bit older and they were getting ready for a 4 day long fishing trip up in the moutains. There plan was to have a helicopter drop them in to a certain part of the river and then they would fish for 4 days and come back out. The funny part to me was they don't even keep the fish. They fish and then throw them back. They were going to fish for trout which I guess gets huge here.
Meribeth came back and sat down with us. We ended up talking for about 4 hours. It was 1:30 when I finally went back to my room. Meribeth and I had to have seperate rooms because she didn't have any available together. There were 3 guys in my room, but they were all gone by the time I woke up in the morning. My guess is they were there for the hikes.
The next morning we woke up, took showers, and got ready to head to the next town. I was walking out to the car when I saw the guys from lsat night. It was about 10 in the morning so I figured that something was wrong if they haven't left yet. I know fishers like to get started early. Apparently, the helicopter service isn't allowed to take fisherman up the moutains. For some reason it's okay to take hunters, but not fisherman. So that was kind of weird. They found a guy that would take them in a boat, but they weren't sure how long it took or any of the details so they had to work it all out. They were determined to make it work. It would have cost them about $1300 to take a helicopter, so maybe the boat was better for them anyways.
We decided to leave Te Anau and head straight to Dunedin. There was nt much to do in Te Anau except for the long hikes, and we were still sad from leaving Queenstown so we weren't in the mood to go search for something to do.