Saturday 22 September 2012

Halfway between the Equator and Antarctica


We left Queenstown this morning for the Fjordland National Park.  Queenstown is THE holiday resort for New Zealand both for skiing and treking. It sits on Lake W........ surrounded by the mountains. It is a beautiful area although very commercial.

The journey to Milford Sound through the park was absolutely amazing.  The scenery was beyond anything I have seen so far - just one fantastic scene after another.

The journey to Milford Sound through the park was absolutely amazing.  The scenery was beyond anything I have seen so far - just one fantastic scene after another.


 Just inside the national park you are exactly halfway between the Equator and Antarctica.  I’m sure at some point in my travels over the years I have been exactly halfway between the Equator and the Arctic but nobody told me.  To get to the Milford Sound you have to climb up a considerable distance through the Humboldt range of mountains through a large avalanche risk area.  Now I thought  - good story for tourists but in actual fact there really was an avalanche risk.  Several had come down after the snow of two weeks ago and one or two were huge and had actually closed the road. Photo
Once we had crossed the avalanche area we had to go through the Homer tunnel, one of the longest in the world to get to Milford Sound.  after that you go down a switchback road for miles.  I really would not like to be driving a car down that road.  Hairy is the only way to describe it.  All the way down you are very aware of the avalanches which come down through this area.  The mountains are breathtaking.



The Milford Sound itself is half fresh water and half sea water as it goes out into the Tasman sea and finally into the Pacific.  It is actually a fjord hewn out by glaciers. The mountain walls rise up straight out of the water and just about half a mile out from where we boarded the boat to go out to the mouth of the Sound is the highest mountain that rises right out of water - the Mitre 
The scenery on the boat ride was awsome and so was the wild life.  Apart from waterfalls and mountains we also saw fur seals and little crested penguins. Photos
It was a long days driving today because the area we were in has only one road in and out.  It is a protected area so, despite the number of tourists visiting it, the road won’t be improved, just maintained.

4 comments:

  1. Some day I will get New Zealand. Hope they can look after the scenery till then at least!

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  2. Probably but you would enjoy it.

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  3. Amazing waterfall! xx p.s. I can tell I've converted you to the word awesome.

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