What a difference a day can make. The storm of yesterday blew through during the night and I awoke to crystal clear blue skies. Actually, this matched the forecast that I had based my trip to Milford Sound on, but yesterday during the storm I wouldn’t have bet a penny on it actually happening. So today was cruise day. I decided to do as early a cruise as possible to leave more of the beautiful day for the journey out. At least assuming that the road would be opened back up and I could get out. The general consensus was that the pass would open sometime today, but nobody was sure exactly when that might be. So I went on a 10:00 AM cruise on the Sound. It was dead calm in the Sound except for the mouth that still had some nice swells coming in from the prior storm. One of the boat crew told me that during the storm. the Milford Sound weather monitoring station recorded wind gusts of 100 Knots! That is well above hurricane force which starts at 70 knots.
Most of the little waterfalls that stream down the cliff faces were back down to a trickle. The bigger falls, however, were still going great guns. We also saw a couple groups of New Zealand Fur Seals and one Fiordland Penguin. The Penguin was too far away to shoot, but the seals were fairly close. After the cruise, I did a walk along the shore of the Sound and then went to check on the road to find that it had just officially opened. So off I went. I stopped at several places on the way out that had nicer conditions than on the way in, and a few new places too. So I have Milford Sound covered as well as I’m going to and tomorrow I can continue southward.
This is looking back toward the terminus of the Sound.
In the Sound, the waterfalls drop straight in.
Because it’s sunny, lots of them have little rainbows at the base from the spray.
Here’s a double falls, each with its own rainbow.
At times, this falls’ rainbow almost rapped around into a full circle.
Here’s one of the New Zealand Fur Seals resting on a rock.
This waterfall shoots its spray straight out sideways when it hits the Sound.
Some fresh snow on these peaks from yesterday’s storm.
This is Stirling Falls, one of the biggest in the Sound.
This one has so much water coming over that it shoots out like a huge fire hose.
A view of Mitre Peak and its reflection.
This is the mountain behind my campsite.
On the way down, I crossed this river but it was cloudy and I couldn’t see the mountains, so I shot it on the way out.
This is the view downstream from the same point.
This little river is just about 50 yards over from the previous one.
And this is the downstream view. Four shots with one stop!
This is the other end of the Homer Tunnel that I drove through to get to the Sound.
While I was waiting at the stoplight for my turn to go through the tunnel, I photographed this sign. I don’t think they should have a sign like this where they make you stop to wait for tunnel traffic.
I shot this spot on the way down, but it had clouds. So I did it again without.
That’s some fresh snow up there!
I did a hike up this cascading stream.
They had built a walkway along the edge of the canyon so that you can access this place.
Lake Gunn looking toward Te Anau.
Another view of Lake Gunn.
I did the walk through the Cascade Creek Forest trail again. This time with sunshine.
This is at a series of small ponds called the “Mirror Lakes”. I didn’t stop on the way in because of clouds and about 10 tour buses stopped there.
Another one of the Mirror Lakes.
These are the mountains that reflect in the lakes.
This shot has four ecosystems in one view. Wetlands, Grasslands, Forest and Alpine.
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