Milford
The two and a half hour drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is the most beautiful road I have ever travelled on, bar none ... and then its beauty is topped by Milford Sound itself, the crown jewel of New Zealand's Fiordland region
December 8, 2004

001-LakeTeAnau On Wednesday, December 8, 2004, I started driving up the Milford Road from Te Anau to Milford Sound ... this is Lake Te Anau, NZ's second largest lake and the South Island's biggest 002-LakeTeAnau Lake Te Anau 003-TeAnauDowns Te Anau Downs, the launching point for the world-famous Milford Track, one of the best hikes in the entire world (they shuttle you to the other side of the lake on a boat to start out) 004-MilfordRoad Milford Road 005-MountainLupinA A massive field of lupin, with the mountains of Fiordland in the background 006-MountainLupinB Mountains and lupin 007-MountainLupinC Vast stretches of lupin 008-MountainLupinD Contained in this one valley was more lupin than I'd ever seen before in my life put together 009-MountainLupinE Mountain lupin 010-MountainLupin Mountain lupin 011-Creek Creek 012-MountainLupin Mountain lupin 013-MountainLupin Mountain lupin ... it was so beautiful here that I didn't want to leave, but I figured I should press on if I wanted to make my Milford Sound cruise on time ... but this was visible from the road, so I just couldn't pass it up 014-Gorse Gorse 015-MountainLupin So many lupin! 016-MackayCreek Mackay Creek 017-MackayCreek Mackay Creek, a bit further up Milford Road 018-Jared-MackayCreek Me at Mackay Creek 019-MackayCreek Mackay Creek 020-EglintonValley A little further up the Milford Road was this, the Eglinton Valley 021-EglintonValley Eglinton Valley 022-EglintonValleyA Eglinton Valley 023-EglintonValleyB Eglinton Valley 024-EglintonValleyC Eglinton Valley 025-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes ... I was told that they can really only be appreciated on nice, calm days, of which there are few in Fiordland (it usually rains), so I jumped at the chance to soak in their beauty on this fine day 026-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 027-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 028-Mountains Mountains 029-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 030-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 031-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 032-MirrorLakes Mirror Lakes 033-Kea A kea atop my car ... at least it hadn';t gotten around to pecking out my car's rubber yet 034-Kea Kea, the world's only alpine parrot 035-Peak Mountain peak 036-Range Southern Alps 037-Jared-Mountains I relished the chance to see mountains on this trip 038-Dome Mountain dome 039-KeaSign That's good advice, not feeding the kea 040-FallsCreek Falls Creek 041-FallsCreek Falls Creek 042-FallsCreek Falls Creek 043-FallsCreek Falls Creek 044-FallsCreek Milford Road went right by all of these places, making it the most beautiful road I've ever traveled on 045-FallsCreek Falls Creek 046-Rapids Rapids 047-Rapids Rapids 048-MilfordRoad Milford Road 049-Kea Kea 050-CheekyKea Cheeky kea 051-MilfordRoad Milford Road 052-MilfordRoad Milford Road 053-Mountains Mountains 054-Snowline At places the snowline came almost down to the road 055-HomerTunnel Homer Tunnel 056-DirtySnow Dirty snow 057-MilfordRoad Milford Road 058-Fiordland Fiordland 059-Peak Peak 060-TheChasm The Chasm 061-TheChasm The Chasm 062-TheChasm The Chasm ... the rushing creek has carved a narrow, deep channel through the rock ... for this picture I'm looking straight down, and that water is a long way below, at least 50 feet 063-TheChasm The Chasm 064-InTheHole A couple of driftwood branches in the hole in the rock 065-TheChasm The Chasm 066-TheChasm The Chasm 067-MitrePeak Mitre Peak at Milford Sound 068-NZFlag New Zealand flag 069-MitrePeak Mitre Peak 070-SheerdownHills-ArthurValley Sheerdown Hills and the Arthur Valley at Milford Sound 071-IDBoard Landscape identification board 072-Wharf Wharf 073-BowenFalls Bowen Falls, the tallest permanent waterfall at Milford Sound 074-MitrePeak Mitre Peak 075-MilfordSound Milford Sound 076-MilfordSound Milford Sound 077-MilfordSound Milford Sound 078-MilfordSound Milford Sound 079-Mountain Mountain 080-MilfordSound Milford Sound 081-MilfordSound Milford Sound 082-StirlingFalls Stirling Falls 083-Jared-MilfordSound This two-hour cruise on Milford Sound was the highlight of my time in NZ 084-Cliff Cliff 085-WindblownWaterfall Windblown waterfall ... when it rains at Milford Sound, there are suddenly hundreds upon hundreds of waterfalls cascading down the sheer rock faces 086-CopperPoint Copper Point 087-MilfordSound Milford Sound ... it would be more accurantely called Milford Fjord, as a sound is created by a river eroding and cutting through to the sea, whereas a fjord is made by a glacier slicing a deep path to the sea, but the initial European discoverers of the fjord didn't realize that this had been made by a glacier, so the name Milford Sound has stuck ever since 088-WindyPoint Windy Point ... it sure lived up to its name, it was really windy (almost a gale) the entire cruise, but it suddenly picked up when we got to Windy Point 089-Falls Falls ... nowhere along the slopes bordering Milford Sound is there any soil, it's all sheer rock ... the vegetation holds itself to the cliffs by their interweaving root systems 090-CascadeRange Cascade Range 091-MilfordSound Milford Sound 092-Falls Falls 093-WindblownFalls 094-WaterfallSpray Waterfall spray 095-Falls Waterfall ... the cruise took us right up to several of these waterfalls 096-Falls Falls 097-Windswept Windswept waterfall 098-Jared-MilfordSound I loved Milford Sound 099-MilfordSound Milford Sound ... a nice day is rare at Milford, as they get about 7 meters (24 feet) of rain per year, but I happened to hit it on an absolutely gorgeous day 100-MilfordSound Milford Sound 101-FaultLine Can you spot the fault line? This is the fault line that splits the South Island 102-MilfordSound Milford Sound 103-NoSoilCliffs Soil-free cliffs 104-TasmanSea The opening of Milford Sound into the Tasman Sea, which separates Australia and New Zealand 105-ShroudedPeaks Shourded peaks 106-Greenstone Those red rocks contain greenstone/pounamu/jade in their interiors 107-MilfordSound Milford Sound 108-MilfordSound Milford Sound 109-MilfordSound Milford Sound 110-KearnsPoint Kearns Point 111-Greenstone Greenstone 112-MilfordSound Milford Sound 113-Jared-MilfordSound Me at Milford Sound 114-StAnnsPointLighthouse St Ann's Point Lighthouse 115-StAnnsPoint St Ann's Point 116-DalePoint Dale Point 117-DalePoint Dale Point 118-MilfordSound Milford Sound ... it's a 22 km long fjord, with peaks of 1300 m dropping nearly straight down to 800 m below the water 119-Jared-MilfordSound Me at Milford Sound 120-SealRocks Seal Rocks ... note the seals sunning themselves 121-MilfordSound Milford Sound 122-MilfordSound Milford Sound 123-StirlingFalls Stirling Falls 124-StirlingFalls Stirling Falls 125-Jared-StirlingFalls Me at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound 126-StraightUp Looking straight up 127-MilfordSound Milford Sound 128-MilfordSound Milford Sound 129-Overhang Overhang 130-MilfordSound Milford Sound 131-MilfordSound Milford Sound 132-MilfordSound Milford Sound 133-SlantingRocks Slanting rocks 134-MilfordSound Spectacular Milford Sound 135-MtPembroke Mt Pembroke 136-MilfordSound Milford Sound 137-MitrePeak Mitre Peak ... it's called Mitre Peak because it's shaped like a mitre (a bishop's hat) 138-MilfordSound Milford Sound 139-BowenFalls Bowen Falls 140-BowenFalls Bowen Falls 141-BowenFalls Bowen Falls 142-BowenFalls Bowen Falls 143-Wharves The wharves at Milford 144-BowenFalls Bowen Falls 145-MitrePeakCruises Mitre Peak Cruises, the group I went with 146-Jared-Boat It was a nice small boat, with a capacity of only about 60 or so, it was quite enjoyable 147-MitrePeak Mitre Peak 148-MitrePeak Mitre Peak 149-MilfordRoad Heading back down Milford Road to Te Anau, and then onto Queenstown 150-MilfordRoad Milford Road 151-MilfordRoad Milford Road 152-Snow Snow 153-HomerTunnelQueue The queue for Homer Tunnel 154-SnowmeltWaterfalls Snowmelt waterfalls in the area around Homer Tunnel 155-LongWait It was a bit of a wait between green lights at each end of Homer Tunnel, 15 minutes 156-Fiordland Beautiful Fiordland 157-HomerTunnel Traffic jam at Homer Tunnel 158-HomerTunnel Homer Tunnel ... it's one lane, not very well lit, and drips like crazy inside ... it's also a mile long or so, and at a surprisingly steep slope for a tunnel 159-Fiordland At least I had pretty Fiordland scenery to look at while I was waiting 160-Waterfalls Waterfalls 161-Snowmelt Snowmelt 162-TeAnauCountryside Countryside around Te Anau 163-RedTussockConservationArea Red Tussock Conservation Area, east of Te Anau 164-HeadingNorth Heading north towards Queenstown ... I drove a lot this particular day, it was two and a half hours of driving time on Milford Road each way between Te Anau and Milford, and then another couple hours or so from Te Anau to Queenstown, so that's around seven hours of driving ... on the way back from Milford, I was really really tired for about an hour or so before Te Anau, it wasn't fun, I had to take a half hour nap in Te Anau 165-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 166-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 167-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 168-WindingRoad The winding road to Queenstown, sandwiched between Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables 169-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 170-LakeWakatipu-Mountains Lake Wakatipu and some mountains near Queenstown 171-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 172-Queenstown Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu 173-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu

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