Milford Sound Premium Day Tour

I woke up at 5 am for a 13 hour day-tour headed southwest to Milford Sound. 14 of us from around the world in one 16 passenger luxury van. It's a four hour drive to get there with a couple of stops along the way. At the Alpine Center Cafe, I bought a chia pudding, a hat and mittens. It's cold and rainy today.

The tour guide is "Rockov" originally from India. His accent is thick, and with the rain and road noise, I'm having difficulty hearing and understanding him. Thankfully I have a USB port, so I can distract myself, and don't have to worry about phone battery. Going through Devil's Staircase, the road is windy and bumpy. I'm sitting in the back of the van and every bump literally ejects me up from my seat. Thankfully, the backseat has shoulder harness seatbelts, so with each boost upward I'm immediately jolted back to my seat.

Here are some of the highlights of the tour:

The mountain had fresh snow overnight.  The mountain is called "The Remarkables"- the most photographed mountain in the area. Snow in the summer is unusual.

Lake Wakatipu has a rise and fall of the water level- 30 cm every 25 min. It's a closed body of water, but the "tides" are due to atmospheric pressure, according to Rockov. When I look it up, I find, "Due to its 84 km length and narrow shape, water oscillates back and forth in a 26.7-minute cycle. This creates a "standing wave" or seiche, most noticeable in Queenstown Bay, where the water level fluctuates by up to 200 mm."

We passed Kingston, a town at south end of lake. There is a steam boat tour that goes back and forth from Kingston to Queenstown. This is the steam boat that I saw last night.

Next we drove through 1.5 hour of countryside. 3 million Sheep, 1 million cows, hay and farmland. I saw a field of hops. None of the animals here are native to New Zealand, and there are no predatory land animals. No danger to the livestock. Kea bird is very mischievous, steals things. Kiwi bird only comes out at night. NZ major exporter of meat. Possums and rabbits are pests.

In 2022 there was a stoat found on the island that was a threat to native birds, so they spent half a million dollars and it took 8 months to catch one stoat.

Town of Mossburn, Deer Capitol of New Zealand. There are literal deer farms here. Picture 50-200 head of deer grazing in a fenced pasture. I saw several of these; however, they are less prolific than the sheep and cows. In the 1930's, deer were declared a pest because they were destroying vegetation. The government hired hunters to kill the deer and they brought back the skins to get paid. After some time, the hunters were only paid to bring back live deer, and there were multiple ways hunters would do this including helicopters, wrestling the deer, and tranquilizers. None of these worked very well.

The mountains are growing 5 to 10 mm per year. Small earthquakes are common here, usually around 2 on the Richter scale. There is a major faultline here. Predictions of a 8 magnitude earthquake coming, with a resulting tsunami of 40 meter waves. Not today!

Lake Te Anau is the largest lake on the south island of New Zealand, followed by Lake Wakatipu.

Te anau means "cave of swirling water". The lakes here have a base of limestone, so I was right about the clear and blue color of the water due to calcium (like Lake Tahoe). There is a Glow worm cave in Te anau. It has bioilluminescence on the walls of the cave. "The caves are illuminated by thousands of Arachnocampa luminosa glowworms, which thrive in the dark, damp environment."

Milford Track is a 53.5 km hike that takes 3 to 5 days to complete.  There are guided hiking tours which are recommended. Not safe to walk alone unless one is an experienced hiker in this terrain.

I saw groves of Manuka tree from which manuka honey comes from.Read more