After an exciting ski day, I woke up the next morning to pack a bag for a couple days as Davis and I prepared for our expedition to Milford Sound, one of New Zealand's most well known tourist attractions. Milford is located in Fiordland National Park on the Southwest coast of the South Island. The drive from Queenstown was about four hours, but all the websites we looked at told us to allow extra time for pictures and because the roads get curvy towards the end.
So, early in the morning, Davis and I were off, picking up a few pies on our way out of town. The day started cloudy and foggy, but once the clouds dispersed, the awesome farmlands and mountains were unveiled. It felt like driving through a movie set, but it was actually real. We stopped a few times for pictures, picked up a tank of gas and some brunch in Te Anau, and continued through the final leg of the drive.
Now, Milford Sound is an inlet from the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast of the South Island. It was pretty far inside the Fiordland National Park, thus, our final bit of the drive was through one of the only roads that goes that far into the National Park. The road was absolutely beautiful, with immense rock faces and cliffsides surrounding us everywhere. One of the coolest parts of the road was the tunnel that burrowed through one of the fiords. The interior was not tiled or cemented over, so the jagged rocks were bulging out from the ceiling and walls, making it feel much more natural.
We finally got to the sound, and I thought about how touristy it was supposed to be because the place was quiet and empty. There was a singular boat tour far out by the farthest fiord I could see, but other than that, Davis and I were alone on the sand right in front of the sound. By this time, the clouds had returned, but that certainly did not take away from the serenity of the water. The sound was still and the only noises I could hear were the caws from the local Kea birds and the thrashing of the waterfall on one of the near fiords.
We stayed on the beach for a bit before heading back to the trail heads of one of the hikes we were planning on doing. We knew we were returning to the sound the following day, so it didn’t bother us too much to leave.
When we arrived at the trailhead for the Lake Marian hike, it was coming up to 3:30. The bad thing about this was that, in the winter, New Zealand gets only about 9 hours of sunlight. The mountains around us were already covering the sun, so we only had about an hour and a half left of actual light. Thankfully, the hike was only about a three hour return trip, so we stuck with it.
My initial thought on the hike was that it was going to be pretty average, and since most people said the hike is relatively easy in terms of difficulty, I wasn’t particularly expecting much. We made it to the lake in about an hour, and my expectations were shattered. The lake was absolutely still. The serenity of Milford paled in comparison to this. The lake, which was partially frozen, was surrounded by steep, high mountains, sheltering it from every bit of wind. It was dead quiet, and the lake seemed eerie because it was just becoming dark. I was able to hear the ice cracking from the top of one of the mountains simply because the sound echoed into this large crater in between the cliffs. I was able to speak at a normal volume and could have a conversation with Davis while I was 50 meters away. Certainly my favorite hike during our trip to the South Island, and it was only supposed to be a side activity.
We tramped back in the dark using our phone flashlights to guide us. After we got back to the car, we made some PB&J sandwiches for dinner and spent an unbelievably cold night in the car in preparation for the next day.
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