We slept in good and proper. Or we would have slept if the other residents were attentive to the weight of the door slamming home or the sounds of their voices. We must assume they were the same culprits as last night who, despite the several written requests about the place, continued clattering away well after 11pm. Still, it's rare for us to be in the same place two nights running and therefore not to have to be cleared out by 10am.
A quick detour into town and [for?] some of the local anti-biting insect spray. This part of the world [Fiordland] may look great but the sandflies are a menace. I woke myself up a couple of times last night scratching.
Today's outing is to Milford Sound to see what the fuss is about. It doesn't look too promising, mind, as the view north is heavily overcast with a strong hint of rain. The wind's a bit chipper too, blowing a steady stream of white horses along the lake. I expected the road to wind along the bank of the lake but instead it winds its way through fields and forests.
Out of the blue there's a view up the Edlington River to snow capped peaks in the distance. There's a great shot between trees, over a lupin filled river bed to the same mountains but no warning (other than a lone photographer in the middle of a tight bend) so we miss it. There's a terrific waterfall at Falls Creek which you only can see whilst on the single lane bridge so we stop in the off-road lay-by (unmarked) and take pictures whilst avoiding the cars and coaches. Before you know it you're in an imposing valley where the mountain sides rise a good 1000m on either side within a few hundred yards of each other.
Then you reach Homer Tunnel, surely one of the wierdest driving experiences [in the world]. In this direction it's a 1 in 10, 1200m downhill tunnel. It's nearly straight but the wierdest thing happens to your lights [there are no tunnel lights] -- you don't see them! For some reason the rough hewn rock sides of the unlit tunnel don't reflect your lights so you're left navigating by either the oncoming headlights of cars or the tiny reflecting discs on the wall [you can't see anything else, it's all black]. It's a very unnerving experience and a great relief to be able to navigate by the light at the end of the tunnel over the last 200m.
A twisty turney run down to the Sound includes the Chasm where the usual forces of nature have honeycombed the rock. Like the bore holes you occaisionally see where a pebble has ground out a cylindrical hole in the rock but in the case of the Chasm the holes go in all directions. The low level stream appeared to be falling sideways for us -- presumably deflected by rock. Something else to be seen in full flood.
Milford Sound, the place, is like many town-like dots on the map. There's nothing there. That's not quite true, there's plenty of car parking and coach parking for the cruise terminal. In the meanwhile the weather had closed in and between showers we were treated to the lower halves of the mountains surrounding the fiord.
Bowen Falls is worth the 10 minute walk. It's often used as a signature photograph for the Sound when it's really only round the headland from the jettys. It's not a huge fall but has a goodly flow. The reason it's used for photos is that the spray is dragged out from the falls by the wind a good 50m or so. So you have, on a good day, a curtain of spray reaching out into the water. We were being treated to [an abundance] of water droplets from a more mundane source so the effect was lost.
Time was running out to buy provisions for tomorrow and it was raining so we started off. Immediately we found the cafe which might have precluded our jam and bread lunch. Never mind. The Homer Tunnel in the uphill junction is a piece of cake, it must be the road falling away and not reflecting that is the cause [of the downhill distress], though the poor Corolla was reduced to 2nd gear.
We whizzed back to Te Anau, missing the great lupin and mountain shot again. In Te Anau we stocked up on picnic provisions for tomorrow and a few other odds and sods. Steamers Beach appears to be very quiet, a blessing, surely. We pick up our third lot of [free] drinks vouchers (four in total) [none of which we've yet used] for one of the restaurants in town but deem it too expensive before blowing NZ$ 60 in another joint. Surprisingly, we walked straight in as did most others. No ridiculous Christmas pre-booking. Only one restaurant was closing early for a staff party otherwise Christmas Eve appeared to be an ordinary business day.
Back at Steamers we retired to the facilities building which caters very nicely for the traveller including a motion sensor for turning on the kitchen lights [I liked that!]. That didn't stop one bozo from ignoring the notice by the switch and turning them [the sensors] off. It's funny how, if you don't drink often, five 335ml bottles of beer can get you quite inebriated. Naturally, I was demoted to cook's helper when it came to making butties for tomorrow's cruise.
Steamers Beach, Te Anau S45.42466 E167.72012 Elev. 182m.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.