February 11, 2019
We were out of the room early at 6:45 AM to start the 65-minute drive to Milford Sound. Heinrich did all of the driving. We were booked on the 3:15 PM boat tour so we had plenty of time to get there, but we wanted to get ahead of the tour buses on the road and maximize time to see all the sights along the way.
The weather in Te Anau Downs was partly cloudy and the colors of the sunrise were pretty pink in the clouds as we left. Our first stop was at Eglinton Valley which had a nice view of the surrounding mountains. The sun lit up the top of the ridge.
Next stop was Mirror Lakes. These were very small lakes that did have nice reflections of the Earl Mountains in the water. It was a 5-minute walk from the road through a pretty fern forest.
We made a series of stops of views along the way, including Lake Gunn and The Divide.
We took a side road where there was a trail to Lake Marian. The first 10 minutes of the trail crossed a swinging bridge and then went to a viewing platform of a series of small waterfalls. It was really more of a rushing river with a few large cascades, but it was quite pretty.
Next stops were at viewpoints: Monkey Creek and the Gertrude Saddle.
At the Homer Tunnel there can be as much as a 20-minute wait to go through the one-lane tunnel. Just as we were reaching the end of the line of cars, the traffic light turned green so we had no wait at all. The mountains were getting more spectacular as we got closer to the sound, but the weather was also getting progressively worse. It was now mostly cloudy in all directions.
We stopped at The Chasm. This was a 20-minute round trip hike to a series of small waterfalls. The trail went through a lush rain forest and passed over two swinging bridges. This was one of my favorite spots for the day. The creek had carved some impressive holes in the limestone to form potholes. There was even a small arch that Heinrich photographed. Back at the car park there was a cheeky kea bird that was posing for us and looking for handouts. It actually hopped onto the roof of our car at one point.
We reached Milford Sound and there was a guy directing traffic to where he wanted us to park. We ended up in a lot so far away from the boat terminal that we had to take a shuttle bus to get there. This was not what we wanted since we had intended to take the walkway to the terminal so that we could see some of the views.
Before getting on the shuttle bus we had breakfast at the car. The sandflies were pretty bad there, so we ate quickly. The shuttle bus took us all the way to the boat terminal. We decided to check in early and ask if we could take an earlier cruise. I was very concerned about the weather which had been predicted to start raining at 3:00, which was about when we were supposed to start the cruise. We had success in switching the tour time to 12:40, but we had to pay $5 per person extra for the upgrade.
It was only 11:45 so we had some time to kill before we had to report to the boat dock at 12:30. So we walked the reverse direction to the visitor center where I got a nice photo of Mitre Peak with its reflection in the water. We also took the first part of the Foreshore Walk which gave a glimpse of Bowen Falls.
We walked back to the boat dock. We were the first people on the boat and immediately headed to the top deck where we found seats on the left side of the boat and under the roof. I thought this would be a good place to sit since I was worried it would start raining. Also the boat direction was to be close to the shore on the left side.
It turned out this was not such a great spot since the boat came so close to the shore that the roof overhang got in the way for many of my shots. But I still was able to get many decent photos. I chose the Mitre Peak company for our cruise since they had smaller boats and did not cater to the cruise crowds. It was a definite advantage when we passed the fur seals and got really close to them.
Mitre Peak also offered 15 more minutes out on the water than most of the other companies, taking us further out into the Tasman Sea. It turned out to be a wasted effort on this particular day since the boat captain reported the water was too rough to go out there. Instead we spent the first 15 minutes of the cruise circling the small bay where we had just walked around in the prior hour. This gave no new views and I wish that we could have spent more time in the main Sound area.
The weather held and it did not rain. But it was almost completely overcast which made the mountains and the water look washed out. Also it had been at least a few days with no rain there, so most of the small waterfalls that I had heard advertised were not in existence. If I were ever to go again, I would not bother to book so far ahead of time and spend more time in the area to try to go on a day with blue skies.
That is not to say I thought it was a waste. There were a lot of great sights on that cruise: the fur seals were awesome, and I loved seeing the two main waterfalls: Bowen and Stirling. The view of Bowen Falls is great from the boat. However, access to that waterfall could be obtained by taking a shuttle boat and then a short 5-minute hike to the base of the falls. I did not find out the charge for the shuttle boat but it was certainly cheaper than the Sound cruise.
Stirling Falls is unique because the boat takes you right up to the waterfall and then underneath it! So you have the chance to get soaked if you wish. I elected to stay dry, but the spray felt good.
After the cruise we took the shuttle bus back to the car. By this time the majority of the tour buses were clearing out and we were able to drive to the car park next to the visitor center. From there we went on the full Foreshore Walk and snapped a few more photos of the portion of Bowen Falls visible from there. We also went on the Lookout Walk which climbed up a series of steps to give an elevated view of Mitre Peak and the sound. I don’t think many people know that this walk exists since we had the place to ourselves.
It never did rain, so we probably would have been okay for the 3:15 tour. There was also a small period of time where I was able to see a patch of blue sky. But for the most part the weather conditions stayed the same all day with overcast skies.
On the drive back we stopped at the Tutoko suspension bridge where we had a nice view of the Tutoko River and the mountains behind. We also stopped again at The Chasm. There were no tour buses there but the kea bird was still hanging around the car park looking for handouts.
There was no wait at the Homer Tunnel and on the other side we pulled over to get a great view of a wall of small ribbon waterfalls. This was what I thought I was going to see on the Sound! There were at least four kea birds there, even more pesty than at The Chasm. People were ignoring the posted signs and feeding them.
We made one more stop at the Falls River waterfall. This was a nice gusher close to the road and not marked in the road guide. I was surprised there was no road sign for it. That ended up being one of my favorite stops for the day.
We drove back to Te Anau Downs and made dinner in the shared kitchen. We had our standard potato and eggs dinner with bacon, red pepper, onion and cheese.