Milford Sound is New Zealand’s landscape porn.
It is a fjord located south of Queenstown in Fiordland National Park, which is large area that takes up a chunk on the southwestern corner of the South Island. It’s rated as one of the top travel destinations in the world.
It was a must-see, of course. And of course, as for any worthy sightseeing, we had to pay. We paid $55NZ per person for an hour-long cruise that would take us to those mountains up close and personal.
Wow. Best $55 I ever spent.
It was a sight to behold. I’ve never seen anything quite as…mystical, pure and distinctive. It felt like the last untouched corner of the earth. It rained that morning, and the low-lying clouds were pregnant with moisture and grayness. Typical weather at the Sound, we were told. These majestic mountains, which rise tall and proud straight out of the water for fifteen kilometers before entering the Tasman Sea, kiss the low fluffy clouds for a total effect that is surreal. It’s like being on a movie set with the best special effects, except it’s reality.
Milford Sound
When we got back in the car, a more banal reality kept up the alertness level.
We almost ran out of gas.
The road back to civilization is a 1.5-hour drive back to Te Anau that leads out of Milford Sound down narrow windy roads through the mountains. This lovely through-way has no gas stations, which we should have thought about on the way there, when the dial indicated we had just over a quarter tank of gas left. One wastes a lot of gas hitting the brakes and zigzagging up and down those sharp curvy roads.
Luckily, there was some “emergency gas” at a detour ten kilometers away. Cost us a bunch, but we safely made it back to our lovely hostel at Bob & Maxine’s.
It was our second night there, voted in by a unanimous decision to spend another night at this place we liked so much.
This time around, our little group watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was so appropriate in that setting it risked cliché.
This time, I had no inclination to stay up half the night. Plus, I had nothing decent to drink.
