“But wait…wasn’t this supposed to be a five day tour?”
“By Jove you’re right, Holmes! What happened on the fifth
day?”
Day 5
I’m glad you asked! Yes, we’ve finished the Milford Track, but we’re not yet done with Milford. As alluded to previously, Milford
also has a Sound. Today’s itinerary consists of a cruise up and down Milford Sound…no walking involved! Huzzah!
Also, we didn’t have to get up bone-crackingly early. We
still had to be up early-ish, though, as the cruise left at 8:30am, and we
still had to do the lunchmaking routine, as the return journey isn’t catered at
Te Anau. So up we were again, and this time we needed to remove our inner
linings from our rucksacks (i.e. a strong bin liner provided at the outset,
which acts as a further waterproof layer should we be deluged), and return them
to Ultimate Hikes. Our bags were then loaded onto the bus, along with our lunches
on our seats, and then we walked (gasp!) the 10 minutes down to the dock, and awaited
our cruise departure.
We joined the throng on the open top deck once we were
away from the dock, and had a coffee and tea in the morning sunshine. Around us
were the sheer cliffs of Milford Sound, or, as the captain explained over the
PA, the fjord. Back in the 19th century when it was named by Captain Grono, after Milford Haven in Wales, fjord wasn’t in the English lexicon. But
it is a fjord, as it was created by glaciation, so it should properly be
called Milford Fjord. There were waterfalls, there were blue skies, there were
mountains. And then the captain told us there was a pod of dolphins up ahead,
and he manoeuvred us into viewing position so that we could take pictures.
Further on there was also a seal colony. He took us out almost to the opening
of the fjord, with views out over the Tasman Sea – if you keep going you’ll
eventually hit West Island – then turned us around, took us in for another close-up
view of the seal colony, and also into the spray of one of the waterfalls.
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So long... |
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New Zealand seal prefers kipping on its back |
The rest of the day was spent on the bus back to Te Anau,
and then Queenstown, where we arrived at around 3:30pm. Knackered as we were,
we took a taxi up to the hotel, got ourselves organised, and headed down the
hill again for a final swan around Queenstown and dinner at Public Kitchen and Bar, where they serve you a whole pavlova if you order it as dessert.
Day 6
Wait, whut? OK, not part of the tour, but we had a final appointment
in Queenstown before we moved on. We (Nicola) had had the foresight to book us a
relaxing massage for after the walk, so we checked out of the hotel for the
last time, and took a taxi again down to the CBD. It was noticeable how much
more traffic there was after Christmas compared to before, and the familiar
Queenstown traffic jam up Frankton Road/Stanley Street was in force. We made it
with minutes to spare. Our taxi driver, clearly a canny operator, had elicited
from us the information that we were leaving today, and arranged to pick us up
to take us to the airport later…good fares to the airport and back being meat
and drink to her.
After the massage we lollygagged around Queenstown until
lunchtime. The queue outside Fergburger was also back in force, although not at pre-covid lengths, so we dived into the bar next door, London Underground, and
had a lunch of pasta and burger there instead.
That was about it for our Christmas adventure. Back onto
a plane and back home before 5:00pm, and looking in the diary to see what was
happening next.
A note on the weather: Milford Track, Milford Sound, and
Fiordland generally experience a lot of precipitation. Rainfall averages
7m annually, with over 200 rain days. We were very lucky with the weather, with
a shower in the afternoon of Day 2, and some light snow/hail on Day 3.
Otherwise we were dry, and sunny most of the time. This is unusual. Many people
do the track in pouring rain the whole time, and their enthusiasm for the hike
can be somewhat dampened by this. We were prepared for rain, but were lucky not
to really experience any significant amounts.