It rains 180 days a year in Milford Sound New Zealand, and if it's not raining, it's snowing. I was a lucky individual who able to enjoy 3 days of pure sunshine in Milford Sound with 2 days of rain towards the end of the trip. Milford Sound has Mountain Peaks that are still covered in snow and Glaciers. When the snow starts to melt they create these stunning waterfalls that can be found all over Milford Sound.
I stayed at the Milford Sound Lodge in the Dorm rooms because that's all they had available besides camping. No, I did not camp and when you see me you'll know why. I'll have to do a show and tell of the nasty 'Sand Fly' bites on my body... ugh! I could spend a whole day explaining why sand flies are so horrible, but I would rather spend it letting you know how wonderful Milford Sound is. Back to the lodge... I met some really great people there who all have one thing in common 'The Great Outdoors'. There are no TV's, Radios, Cell Phone Reception, etc, etc, etc in Milford Sound. I spent the day before traveling to Milford Sound in a Grocery Store shopping for food to prepare for the upcoming 5 days since there is no grocery store in Milford Sound. Milford Sound has 1) 1 Lodge, 1 Hotel; 2) 1 Cafe; and 3)Bus Terminal and Small Airport Terminal that charges $400-$$$$ for private flights back and forth to Queenstown. There's one road coming in and out of Milford Sound and if there is an avalanche (via snow, tree or rocks), the roads can be shut down for up to 10 days! After hiking in Milford Sound, I understand why... Trees that grow on the mountains have roots that intertwine and if one falls, they all fall.
I met a lot of Germans in New Zealand. I stayed in a dorm with 3 young German professionals traveling around NZ (Jana, Florio and Stephen) and 2 other girls who just finished college traveling from Germany (Jana and Teresa) and 2 girls from Australia (Claire/Carmen) in college. I made a lot of friends in the Sound and it was funny exchanging stories in the 'lounge' that closed at 11pm. The typical day is spent waking up at 6am getting ready for the day (hiking, kayaking, rafting or biking on that tiny road HW94/95! You would never catch me biking that road unless it was before 9am or after 6pm when all of the buses have come through picking up or dropping off people. I had to walk the highway to get to and from some of the trail heads and every time I heard something coming, I would literally walk down to the ditch and wait for it to pass.
I will give more details of my kayaking adventure Now... So, I went Kayaking for 6 hours the day after I arrived in Milford Sound. Kayaking starts at 7:15am and ends around 2/3pm. Everyone filled out the paperwork stating if they have ever kayaking in the past and if so, type and # of times. There's also a little section asking people to identify any injuries... thispart will be of particular interest to people reading this blog because I almost got killed kayaking with my partner... not really, I'm a strong swimmer and would have been ok if the kayak capsized. Here's my only other complaint other than the sand flies... Lessons learned for Kayaking in Milford Sound:
- If you are traveling alone and the other person traveling alone request that you become partners, you should ask a few questions like (have you ever Kayaked, do you know how to paddle, are you injured from let's say a 'sky diving incident that happened the day before)
- If your partner looks like he's over 65 and not fit, you may request to be placed with someone else
- If your partner almost gets you injured due to #1 and #2, you have the right to get really upset for ruining half of your Kayak experience in one of the most beautiful places in the World!
Hiking in Milford Sound is amazing and dangerous. Amazing because everything is so green and there are so many streams, waterfalls, rivers that you have to cross to get to where you're going. I recall telling you guys about my many falls. I fell at least 5 times while hiking and when I say that I fell... I fell backwards, forwards and even sideways into the river. I would get up and shake it off and laugh at myself. One girl at the lodge actually broke 3 ribs hiking. It's the slippery moss growing on everything (rocks/tree roots). The moss doesn't burn off until February. Mud also became an apparent problem. I had to cross 1-2 feet of mud during some points of my trekking. My clothes and hiking boots smelled really bad, so I left them in Milford Sound along with my broken hiking sticks and relied on my running shoes for the rest of my trip. Trekking in the sound is like doing a full day obstacle course, because you have to climb up rocks, climb over and under trees to get to where you're going. I also only met one other couple the whole time hiking in Milford Sound alone. It looked like the trails hadn't been walked for weeks. I found some really cool bird eggs, rocks, etc while hiking. I turned the eggs into the lodge for animal conservation and kept the rocks :) Got them through customs. And for those people who think that I should have left the eggs alone, you're wrong. Eggs that fall out of nests will either die from becoming orphaned babies or will be eaten by weasels. Milford Sound has a huge weasel problem that is killing off a lot of the birds by eating their nest eggs. Milford has amazing birds and if I am hiking and can save at least one, I've done my good deed for the day! Yay, to saving a life... doesn't matter if it's an animal or human life!
It's kind of funny, my whole trip, I found myself helping others and others helping me out. Whether it being a ride to a trail head or advice on where to go, everyone traveling seemed to help each other out! Just amazing... I did not run across too many selfish people on the trip! I do plan to visit Germany one day soon since the people were so nice.
A few NZ facts: There are no native animals to New Zealand besides the Kiwi, everything else was imported. There are no snakes in NZ, this made hiking feel a little safer. That beautiful sweet smelling yellow flower is known as Scottish Broom and is a pest to the locals.
Now time for pictures:
Trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound:
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| Natural Glaciers |
Trip back to Queenstown from Milford Sound
Isn't God Amazing!!!! That's a statement, not a question!
Mirror Lakes... Yeah... No Captions needed for these... The pictures kind of tell the story!
The Chasm
Flowers (Millions of them)!
The Lodge... There is absolutely nothing around besides Mountains and the River! I had plenty of time to think and reflect out here! I found out more about myself here.
The daily routine here is... waking up early, eating breakfast together, getting your actives on for the day, coming back to shower, cook dinner and eat together, congregate in the lounge until 10pm and sleep and do it again the next day! If you make too much noise after 11pm, you'll be asked to leave... doesn't matter if you came here on a bus or not. Have fun with the Sand Flies outside! This actually happened to a group of people while I stayed here!
I really hope that I have little boys one day so I can spend all my time with them outdoors! I'm such a big kid when it comes to being outside! Who plays with Rocks??? Me! It was the day I arrived and I had time to kill :)
Kayaking... Well, you have already read the story about this:
Hanging out with a few friends made while in Milford Sound:
Trekking in Milford Sound
Obstacle Course Ahead... A 6hour hike that turned into an 8hour hike. I'm still sore!!!
Welcome to the Jungle!
Yes, this is part of my hike...
Yes, Yes... what a lovely valley... too bad that I didn't get to enjoy it because of the Sand Flies!
Sand Flies
I will post pictures of Auckland and Melbourne tonight. Pictures of the Great Barrier Reef will be uploaded once I get the film from the underwater camera developed and put onto a CD. Pictures posted in the blog are X-Large, so click on them if you want to see the full size picture.
Enjoy!
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