Storyline: Home to home westward
As we have probably mentioned a few times our “splurge times” for NZ were Milford Sound and Mt. Cook. There are a few ways to take the Milford Sound tour if you don’t have a car.
The most popular was the one-day tour from Queenstown. They bus you early in the morning for over 5 hours to Milford Sound – 7:05am to 12:45pm in our experience, since we took this bus one way. Then you jump onto the boat that departs at 1pm. Lunch is included in the price of the tour (optional on some tours) and it’s provided on board. 90 min later you are dropped off at the harbour and off you run for your 3pm bus back to Queenstown. That seemed like awfully long day to us.
A second option was to take the bus (same bus mind you) to Te Anau, stay there for a few days and take the same tour but from Te Anau.
A third option, and the one we chose, was to stay in Milford Sound and take the 9am boat the next day. We actually took a package with dinner, breakfast, lunch and a 3-hour boat tour. At first it seemed expensive, but when I added all the numbers for the other tours, cost of accommodation in Queenstown, food, etc. it made a perfect sense to stay at Milford Sound Lodge (which is the only accommodation in Milford Sound) and take the package.
After messing up our plans for Franz Josef and for a few hikes in Dunedin, the weather was good to us. I could not have wished for better conditions. It rains a lot in Milford Sound, averaging 9 metres a year. By mid-April this year they had already received over 4 metres of rain. This is over a metre a month! I guess it was time for a break.
We were dropped off by our bus driver Johnny at the tour boat terminal, and a shuttle took us up to the lodge. The views from our room were spectacular. I had booked the cheaper room in a cottage with mountain view. The river view cottages were almost double the price. To be honest they do know how to milk a tourist here. Our cottage was facing both the water and the mountain. Next to us was a river view cottage. Didn’t see much a difference in the views. Perhaps these units are larger. But if you are a tourist and don’t know the location, they for sure can trick you into paying “river view” rate if you are fixated on water views. Mind you it is a small river. Reminded us of the Urubamba River in Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) Peru.
We spent a lovely afternoon exploring the area and both decided that we actually wanted to have our wine in the cottage and enjoy the views, rather than go back to the bar in the main lodge.
Dinner was fantastic. A full meal each was a bit too much, but we managed to finish it with a bottle of local Shiraz. And yes, we shared all the meals for full experience.
After breakfast, which was fantastic too, we were shuttled to the boat terminal. It was another sunny day, so sunny that was almost impossible to take a good photo.
And the waters! Flat and shiny like a glass. I for sure enjoyed the tour. Coffee, tea and lunch were included. We saw all kinds of wildlife: dolphins, seals, something bigger in the distance approaching the Tasman Sea, birds. I managed to snap a fault line going from a summit down into the water.
Although it is called Milford Sound it’s really a fiord. We were told that the Welshman who named the Sound did not have the Norwegian word “fiord” (or “fjord”) in his vocabulary and used a word that he knew. The name stuck, as did that of neighbouring fiord Doubtful Sound, which is also a tourism destination.
On our way back we were dropped off at an underwater observatory and research centre, where we descended a spiral staircase 10 metres below the surface to see the fish, corals and green lipped mussels in their native environment while keeping warm and dry.
After an hour or so we were picked by another boat and delivered to shore. That is when Alex noticed that his hat is missing. I usually check (literally count) the pieces of luggage and loose clothing that we carry around, but the hat had been on his head. So, I wasn’t thinking he’d drop it somewhere unattended (blush – A).
When we get off any transportation, we are reminded to take our belongings. The only way to get them back, they say, is the next day on e-Bay. We heard this from the first bus driver, and several after. They send them to a central depot, hold them there for about 40 days and then sell them off.
Well, I mused, you’ll have to look on e-Bay for a hat with your name in it. This was his fairly expensive cotton Tilley hat and had his name on the label inside. We often leave a hat behind us in a lodge or a B&B. But never so far, his Tilley hat. I almost regretted I didn’t buy him a cheaper hat with similar look and functionality from the Whale Watchers site in Kaikoura.
When we got off the boat I ran to the WC and he checked with the company that runs the boat tours. It was his coming Easter present. Someone had handed it in to the clerk at the counter. Huge relief for both of us (well, it was a relief for me because I knew that if not found, I’d hear about it every day thereafter. I should’ve realized that I get to hear about it every day anyway. Some relief! – A). And we don’t know who to thank.
Back at the lodge I had another bubbly (beer for Alex: he had discovered a nice local beer…), got our luggage (we had left our carry-ons in Queenstown and traveled only with the backpacks for that part of the trip) and waited for our bus departure time. Then we walked to the boat terminal which is also a bus stop and took our last shots of this beautiful place.
Arrived in Te Anau around 5pm, sun still shining. Checking in our motel room with kitchenette, the owner apologised that there would be cars in front. They are good people, though, he noted. This is because I had a note in my booking for a room away from cars.
Well, it happened so this was a Ford Model A car club gathering and there was no such thing as away from cars. There were 150 or so of them around this small town. But when they arrived, Alex’s face lit up. He talked to the owner of the car parked closest to us.
We learned that there was a 3-day event, including tours around the area and a parade through town. It was surprising that these cars could still run. Someone showed us a burned-out wire that he had pulled from under the dashboard after seeing smoke billow out. But the funniest was this photo we took in our motel parking lot. And yes, the owner of this small motel was right. They were nice people. The cars were muddy and dusty as they had been on a backroad tour that day.
We could take a water taxi across the lake the next day and hike back, but the last departure was too early. So, we opted to see the Model A parade instead.
So what is a Model A? It was Henry Ford’s successor vehicle to the famous Model T…the one for which the assembly line was invented. The cars here were built in their millions between 1928 and 1933, in places as far afield as Japan, Brazil, Europe, the USA and Canada, so they are all around 90 years old. And being driven on bumpy back roads as if they were new SUVs. After the parade (which we missed), the cars were all gathered in a local park where the participants engaged in such technical events as driving over logs, having passengers toss rings over pegs and others. It was a very collegial and cooperative time and looked like a lot of fun for the participants.
As we walked among the gathered vehicles, all Model A’s but with body styles from 2-door convertibles to delivery trucks, we saw licence plates from New Zealand, of course, but also quite a few from the USA. Alex thinks that it’s an interesting hobby and he may take it up. Diana and her motion sickness disagree. Oh, come on Alex, all vehicle owners and drivers were much older than us.
Te Anau as many other is a small town with about 2000 local inhabitants, that bursts to 6000 or so during the summer tourist season, and possibly even during the winter when roads are open.
It has a beautiful lake and Johnny had told us its story, history, depth, etc. We learned from the motel owner that the weather is quite different from Milford Sound with morning clouds/fog that clears by mid day.
And we observed this the next day. Pretty low clouds gently touching the mountains that made everything so beautiful and photogenic. The Canada Goose parade (birds, not the uber-expensive brand of winter jackets that we also saw in one of the stores) after the car parade,
and a stroll around the lake to the bird sanctuary and back for a slow day in somewhat quieter town. And our culinary experience in this small town? Lunch at a food truck and early bird dinner at a pub, sampling their local lamb with veggies. The emphasis is on veggies!
As mentioned in previous posts, we traded our AwesomeNZ tour bus at 5pm for a small Tracknet (a local company) bus at 11:10am and next day were back in Queenstown in time to gather our stored luggage, have a lovely oyster dinner and repack for our next leg to Mt. Cook.
Join the conversation around our e-Table