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January 9, 2006
Milford Sound
We were picked up by a guy from the kayaking company about 10 minutes before 6:00 and were shortly afterwards on our way to Milford Sound. On the way through the national park, on one of the stops to admire a view, a parrot-like bird called a kea landed on the roof of the car. Our guide explained that it had been recently ranked as the smartest bird in the world and as such there was a huge black market to export them as pets. He's personally been offered thousands of dollars by a customer if he could get one to her.
Milford Sound was incredibly impressive. A fjord, the area was carved by glaciers. Although this area is famous for being rainy and overcast, we happened to be there on a beautiful day. We kayaked around the water until a little after noon. Not only will photos not do the place justice, neither did my own eyes. Things are so large there that there is a "dwarfing effect." For example, there is a waterfall that is three times the height of Niagara Falls. I thought they were joking as it looked big but not "larger-than-life" type of waterfall you imagine when you think of Niagara. Head over to our photo page to take a look at some of the pictures of the waterfall.
Our guide demonstrated the "dwarfing effect" by pointing out a waterfall in the distance and having everyone guess how far away it was. I thought it was about a kilometer and when some people started guessing 2 or three kilometers I thought they were nuts. Three kilometers was the typical distance of a cross country course in high school that we could run in around 17 minutes. It looked like I could reach the base of the falls, even though I'm not in shape, in about 5 to 10min. I was shocked when he said it was 8km away.
After paddling around the sound for various hours we jumped on a boat and headed over to a marine aquarium that had been built a few years back along a rock face. It featured a spiraled stairway that let you walk down 10 meters below the waters surface. This was particularly interesting as in the Sound the top layer of water was fresh while about 6 feet down it became saltwater where sea creatures could live. Due to the frequent rain, the fresh water level fluctuates. It was a great set up that let you really see where the saltwater began with all the aquatic life.
We jumped on a bus back to town a little after three and were back in Te Anau a few hours later. Tomorrow we are off to Christchurch.
Posted by Peter Mork at January 9, 2006 9:49 PM
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