Queenstown

I would just like to say that Milford Sound is amazing.
The drive to Milford Sound is also amazing.

Fiordlands National Park consists of 3 million acres of virgin rainforest. I can't even tell you how beautiful it is. Our bus driver blew me away with the natural history he was spouting off. E.g. the entire park was once covered by glaciers 1500m high, leaving only the the top thirds of the mountains exposed. The area is now covered by beech trees from the bottoms of the mountains up to about 1200m, where the yearly snows prevent seedlings from lasting through winter. They won't seed in the valleys either, which were scraped so flat and smooth by the glaciers that rainfall has nowhere to flow to, creating too boggy of a situation for the trees to grow. So we're driving down this perfectly flat prairie covered with gold grasses, and not a single tree, except the few shrubs which have sunken their roots into the boulders scattered here and there by the glaciers. At one point we saw a mountain which had crumbled down into the valley some thousands of years ago, and everywhere it left rocks there were trees standing up on top of them. But never on the floor of the valley. At times, when there has been a lot of rainfall and the trees become waterlogged and significantly heavier than usual, their root systems won't be able to support them by gripping into the bare rock any longer. When this happens it takes just one tree falling over to start a "tree avalanche", which will strip a large area of the mountainside bare down to the bedrock. It takes around 900 years for one of these scars to regenerate its forest covering, going through several stages of grasses, shrubs, and finally trees.

From Te Anau we drove for about an hour along the Eglinton Valley (identifiable as a glacial valley by its "U" shape and the angular boulders deposited by the ice) until we began to climb up into the mountains. The area gets incredible amounts of snowfall in the winter, and the steep-sided mountains, devoid of covering above the tree line, create a terrifically avalanche-prone situation. In the winter avalanches are triggered by explosives every two to three weeks (at pre-determined times when the road has been closed in preparation) so that the snow never builds up to dangerous instability. According to our driver, an avalanche can deposit up to 30m of snow on the road at one time. And these happen all winter long!! I can hardly imagine that much snow.

We stopped at one point to fill up our water bottles at a glacial stream. Recent rainfalls had created countless waterfalls tracing their ways down the bare rock, and made the rivers churning and swift. The water was incredibly clear and crisp. It's so strange to go against the basic safety rules which are drilled into you when you're a kid, such as "don't drink from streams or rivers!". This water was probably some of the purest on earth, without the aid of chemicals, distillation, filtration, or any of that junk. Just knowing I had it in my water bottle made me super happy. :)

Then we drove through a 1.2 km tunnel blasted through the solid granite of the mountains. It took 17 years to complete the tunnel, and despite its lack of reinforcements or ventilation systems it is the most secure tunnel in the world because of the strength of the rock. Our driver said that some years ago he was driving through the tunnel when a 6.something earthquake hit, and he knew nothing of it until they emerged from the other side!

After the tunnel we wound our way back down to sea level and soon came upon Milford Sound. Since it had been rainy the last couple of days we were treated to a billion waterfalls, mostly white threads spilling down the mountainside and often blowing away in the wind before reaching the sea. The mountains rose almost vertically out of the water, and the only way we could comprehend how huge they were was to see the tiny speck of another ship drifting by the base, or the white dot of a small plane taking someone on a scenic flight. Clouds were sitting on the tops of the mountains, and the sun was only able to break through here and there. I think the clouds and occasional rain made it even more beautiful.

We cruised down the sound all the way out to the Tasman, encountering some dolphins and fur seals along the way. On the way back our captain brought the nose of the ship right up near the base of a huge waterfall, so close that Kelly and I were both soaked by the freezing mists billowing all around us. We were afraid we'd drift forward just another couple of feet and the water would start pounding down on the deck, but luckily the captain was able to maneuver us quite deftly. I think that experience made Kelly's day.

It was a long day of driving to get to the Sound and then all the way back to Queenstown, but I would say it's probably the most amazing adventure we've had so far. We'll post some pictures in the next few days, though they really can't do justice to the beauty or scale of Milford.

Tonight is our last night in Queenstown, and tomorrow we'll head on to Dunedin. Later we're meeting up with a friend we've made, Hannah from Holland, for a burger from the legendary "Fergberger", and then possibly some ice cream. Queenstown is cute, but doesn't have enough going on to keep us here for long. In Dunedin we plan to star the job search in earnest, as it seems like a city we might both like a lot. Cross your fingers for good job opportunities.

On an unrelated topic, we did find some very tasty pies in Te Anau. Miles' Better Pies has shown us that SOMEONE in NZ has skill when it comes to cooking. Though I'm sure we could both still do better. :)