We’d been told that we could not miss visiting Milford Sound if we got to the South Island, and I absolutely understand why now. We booked a day-long kayaking trip that would take us on the sound, and what made sense was to drive to and stay in the small town of Te Anau – known as the gateway to the sound area. We lucked out in our choice of an awesome bed and breakfast (South Fiord Bed And Breakfast) run by a lovely couple, John and Linda. John is an emergency rescue guy (he goes out on the helicopters to rescue hikers and others who get themselves in a pickle), and Linda runs the B and B, tends to the farm animals (sheep, chickens, etc), nurtures the garden, and bakes like a fiend! Our room looked out on their substantive acreage and Lake Te Anau…we could watch the sunset from our bedroom.
To get to Milford Sound you have to wind your way through incredible mountains and canyons carve millions of years ago by cascading glaciers. Our tour bus guide was both a bit of a comedian and a great source of information about the landscape – we had a lot of fun both to and from the kayaking learning about the geological history and groaning at his bad jokes.
The kayak experience itself was amazing. Andrew and I had both been in kayaks before – once or twice – but this was special. These were double kayaks – me in front making sure we didn’t get too far from the group and not hit anything in the water, and Andrew manning the rudder to be sure we kept heading in the right direction. Oh and yes, we had to paddle together! I am not sure that our photos do the scenery in Milford Sound justice. I definitely felt about as small as I ever have when looking straight up at the jaggedly carved peaks that surrounded us – I can only imagine what it would be like with snow on them.
The ONLY thing that disrupted an otherwise meditative experience on this trip were sand flies. There are literally no indigenous bugs and creepy crawly things in New Zealand…but there are sand flies that LOVE the beach areas (and people visitors) to the sound. Suffice it to say this didn’t ruin our time – it just made us all the more grateful to either be on the water or in the bus!
We were very lucky that the water was quite calm except when large boats came by – there are many small cruise boats that run daily through the area so we had to navigate over their wakes here and there. We even saw a helicopter land on the top of a snazzy boat…our guide called that a boat for the “fancy pants” tourists. We got a good laugh out of that one.
On our ride home we went through an incredible tunnel – it took years to dig though the solid limestone; we also got to build a stone bridge – defying gravity…and the water coming down from the mountains was so pure that I was able to fill my water bottle and drink it “straight up” with no concern about – well, anything. All very memorable.
Living La Vida Loca 