Milford Sound

Queenstown to Milford Sound

We were up early and on the bus before the sun was over the mountains. We made a couple more stops for people but in the end, our bus with capacity of at least 60, had 9 passengers and 1 driver.

The Remarkables

We were out of town by 7:15 and driving on windy roads through sheep, cows, and deer for a while before we got to our first stop, about 2 hours in, at Te Anau. It was a bathroom break and snack/breakfast/coffee break. They have alpaca in their field, but more on them later.

Onward we went, stopping a few times for photos. And one final bathroom break. It was nice being on the Greyline bus, which is partnered with Cruise Milford, one of the many options for the Milford Sound journey. Our bus was big, clean, and very empty. Their internet presence is not stellar, so I bet they are often this quiet. Go Orange's marketing is everywhere and their bus was packed.

Mirror Lakes

Glass-topped bus was great in forest and beside mountains

During storms, this waterfall can sometimes pour onto the highway

Waiting to go through the Homer Tunnel

Still waiting. I wish this photo could convey how dramatic this cliff was.

Waiting. It's a one-lane tunnel.

This was the exit we came out on the west side of the Homer Tunnel.

The Chasm. So much cooler than a photo can show.

The waterfall disappears down this hole of oddly shaped rocks that it carved.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is not a sound, it is a fiord (created by glaciers, not rivers).

You can clearly see the scar from a landslide in Sept 2016 which took out a building and caused the evacuation of the building seen here, the terminal for all the cruise companies

That's our boat and Mitre Peak in the back, rising over 1 mile above the water, and one of the tallest mountains to rise directly from the sea floor

U-shaped Sinbad Gully

To convey the scale of this, consider that those are trees, not bushes.

Fairy Falls

Copper Point - narrowest and windiest part of the sound

There's the Tasman Sea. Dale Point, on the right, obstructs Milford Sound from view, so Capt Cook and other explorers missed it repeatedly

This cave is meant to look like two turtles kissing. Do you see it?

Juvenile fur seals -- try to spot them all.

Stirling Falls - one of the two permanent falls at Milford; all others are rain-dependent

Everyone on the decks outside got wet

Bowen Falls - the other permanent waterfall

Driving back to Queenstown

Most everyone fell asleep. I think the girl in the tank-top was super motion-sick.

Imagine the drive from earlier, but in reverse. The driver didn't give us any new trivia, but he played a movie called Hunt for the Wilderpeople which I highly recommend. Sometimes it felt like a cross between a Wes Anderson movie and one of Edgar Wright's Cornetto movies.

And the biggest difference was: I got to feed the alpacas!

Tina!!

I know Tina was a llama, but I still yelled for Tina to eat her quesa-dill-uh.

A bee tried pollenating my window

Dinner in Queenstown

We were booked on to the Stargazing tour with Skyline. We'd take a gondola up, have a starguide, and wind up with a pretty late night. The tour was cancelled due to cloud cover, though. So we walked around and went to dinner. 

We went to Blue Kanu on the recommendation of the desk agent at Skyline. They call it PolynAsian food. The flavors were pretty great.

Kokoda (Fijian ceviche) of fresh market fish with jasmine rice crackers and nam jim sorbet

Keke Pua'a: steamed bun of charsui pork belly with gochujang aioli

Burmese Shan Tofu: housemade yellow split pea tofu with crispy beancurd and cashew nut sauce

Chicken karaage with wasabi aioli -- Mike's favorite of the night

Ginger Colada -- white rum, ginger liquer, pineapple, coconut, fresh ginger, lime, orange bitters, ginger beer

Black rice pudding, baby coconut marshmallow, coconut ice cream

Blue Kanu felt very San Francisco. And the prices were a bit high. Very San Francisco.

And that was that. We took the scenic meandering way home and are going to get to sleep tonight without an alarm!