Tuesday, February 12 - Milford Sound

      New Zealand has fjords, or fiords, as they spell them here.  The early English explorers called the deep fingers of ocean probing the Southern Alps sounds, but since the gorges were carved by glaciers as opposed to rivers, they are technically fiords, similar to those in Norway.
     Fiordland is one of the most isolated wilderness areas in the world.  Only one road crosses from the east side of the island to the coast, the Milford road, an engineering wonder that takes you through some magnificent alpine terrain.
     We scheduled a boat trip out through the 15 km Milford Sound, and with no convenient place to camp, decided to do the drive out and back, plus the nearly 2 hour boat trip, in one day.  It made for a long and photo copious day.

The drive to the sound is as scenic as the cruise through the fiord ...

... thus, the never-ending stream of tour buses

A peak through the clouds

It took something like 18 years to complete the Homer tunnel, and it has
to be continuously repaired due to rock and snow avalanches.  A big rock
slide hit the exit of the tunnel last month, fortunately all was calm while
we drove through.

The west side of the divide has rainforest in the valleys.
Fiordland is one of the rainiest places on earth, with
the Milford Sound getting 10 meters some years,
that's almost 400 inches of rain!  As you can see, it
was mostly sunny while we were there.

While not as windy as the Cook Strait crossing, there was enough to turn
Dan into the Stay-Puff Marshmallow ... after too much time on a camp fire

In calmer conditions the kids enjoy the view

The girls decide to up the cultural value of the trip with a little ballet, while
Dan sings 'Swan Lake'

No, they're your daughters!

On the return trip we meet a couple Keas looking for a handout

Look out Diana, he's found a way in!

In camp that night Kelly and Dan try to relieve the face cramping due to
all the scenery gawking.  Beer and Tim Tams help.