South Island Journey - Day #3

23.12.2013 - Quenstown / Milford Sound

Today we made a bus tour from Queenstown to Milford Sound. We were picked up at 7:35am at our
hotel and started our 4h journey to Fjordland. Our bus driver James had voice like his real profession
was reading audiobooks. He told us a lot about the history of the south island and the parts we were
going through in particular. From the Remarkable's to glaciers to Fjordland to sheep, deer and beef
farming and why the little steam locomotive is not in business anymore and why there is a tractor on
the ground of lake Wakapitu.
We made short stops on the way and when I say short I mean it! In some areas we just stopped for 7min,
enough time to jump of the bus take a picture of this fucking incredible beautiful nature and jump back
on the bus. On the way I though it might be nice to not be in such a rush but considering that we had
only one day to get there it's just not possible to make longer stops.

When we got closer to Milford Sound and started climbing up to 900m with our bus with steep mountains
rising up left and right of the small street I really felt like entering a different world. I mean I've seen the
Alps but this was different, it looked and felt wilder, rougher, older and more like untouched nature. The
vegetation was going up higher than in the Alps and looked more like jungle and well yes the Kea's that
were flying around and sitting everywhere help with that. We saw landslides that happened just a few
weeks before, where rocks just crushed away the street or saw where ultra fast dropping winds with
speeds up to 300km/h wiped large trees away like it was nothing.

After entering into Milford Sound through a tunnel we completely left civilisation behind and entered into
nature. This really looked like a place where man doesn't belong besides checking in from time to time
to put one's life in perspective and enjoy nature for what it is. Incredibly beautiful and deadly.

When we arrived at the bus station where our boat was waiting for us I realised that it wasn't that good to
have not used the anti Blackfly/Sandfly spray. Luckily for me the sun decided to hide behind the clouds
and it was pretty cold and windy so the flies had not that much skin to go for. We then left with our boat for
a 90min trip through the sound which was quite impressive. This narrow sound, the steep mountains, the
low hanging clouds, the snow dipped mountain tops, the waterfalls and the wind. Wow! Truly one of the
most impressive things I've seen so far in my life. There was one spot where you could see an open fault
line running up the mountain with a waterfall coming down in it. What better way to show how beautiful
and deadly nature can be at the same time. This fault line produces about 1000 earthquakes in a month
up to 4.5.

If you have the chance to get down here take your time to do the trip to Milford Sound, it's worth the time
and the money! Only thing that could have made it better, would have been some more sun and if the
dolphins had showed up. But this is like complaining after your stuffed yourself with the best food available
and not been offered some ice cream and a mint.