2/23 Monday, Milford Sound cruise

We left at 7 a.m. for the 4.5 hr bus ride to Milford Sound, driving through the gorgeous Southern Alps. Betty chose to ride with us over there, even though Peter told her the boat tickets were completely sold out. We were going to be 2 hrs on the boat but I thought it might be worth the drive to see the scenery, which it definitely was! Then she could read a book if she couldn’t get on the boat. But I thought with one person there was a chance someone in ours or one of the other tours would cancel and she could get a ticket. It turned out Josh (and Trish stayed home with him) as well as Pat, who’d had two shoulders replaced before this trip and was hurting, decided to stay back and chill out at the hotel. Josh had ended up in the hospital the day before with chills, fever, shakes - thinking maybe he had picked up malaria in a Fiji stop on their way to Australia. It wasn’t that, they don’t know what, but he wasn’t feeling up to going.



Many of the mountains had snow tops or glaciers on top and were rugged and spectacular. Most of the countryside was just sheep grazing, some reindeer (they raise them for meat and antlers), and cows/cattle. The road was windy and lots of switchbacks. Barbara and Judy sat in the front seats and took medicine for the motion sickness. We saw some interesting movies on the video screens going over and coming back to pass the time. We saw a great movie with Anthony Hopkins about a motor cycle racer from New Zealand who in his 80s took his “Indian” to Bonneville Salt Flats and set a world land speed record of over 200+ MPH. He’s always great in whatever he’s in! We saw a documentary on the ANZAC contributions in WWI.



I chatted with Joanna who had taught for a year in both Germany and Mexico in the 80s, when she lost her teaching job in California when there were cutbacks. She was, and still is, pretty adventurous!!



The road we drove on was built during the 1930s as a Depression era work project. This was the same as that Great Ocean Road in Melbourne Anna and I took the bus trip down. When we arrived in Milford Sound, we were only about 40 KM from Queenstown but we had to take a LOOONG u-shaped drive around mountains to get there. They finally had to blast/dig a tunnel through one mountain - about 3/4 mile long, one way only for buses - to get there. The Homer Tunnel was started in 1939 and not completed until 1954. They still frequently have avalanches that can completely cover the tunnel openings and it takes sometimes weeks to clear them. There is no town, only the ferry stop for several boats.



Peter had reserved tables so it was much more comfortable, compared to the crowded ferry trip the day before to the farm across Lake Wakatipu. Since three of our group had not gone, there was even a box lunch for Betty! She went with Peter to the ticket counter and purchased her ticket ($95) but she thought it was well worth it! There were plenty of extra seats on the bus so that wasn’t an issue.



Some facts: Queenstown has about 1 meter of rain/hear; The Divide that we crossed has about 20 ‘/year and Milford Sounds has 30 feet/year!!



A book I’d be interested in reading that Peter passed around is Penguin Press’ History of New Zealand by M. King. New Zealand was the last country to be settled and civilized.



Lake Wakatipu is the longest lake in NZ - 80 miles from Glenorchy to Kingston. People fish for brown trout, rainbow trout and salmon. I had a salmon dinner the other night that was the best salmon I’ve tasted!



Maori - this native people mostly lived in the North Island and only came here for hunting and to find the greenstone (I think that’s jade). They came here 700-900 years ago probably from Polynesia, when food got scarce.



Famous ALL BLACK rugby team is formidable!



They were much more aggressive and assertive than the Aborigines in Australia. They would trade the British for muskets. Then used them for the Musket Wars amongst themselves.



New Zealand has no snakes, scorpions, squirrels, bears, or other predators.



Kea is a native, cheeky Alpine parrot very curious, supposedly has the intelligence of a 2 year old. Will eat the rubber wipers and other parts off your car. Great problem-solvers to open things to get food.



NZ is the size of the state of Colorado with 4 million population. VERY protective of their water and environment. Very strict customs rules! $400 fine if you mark NO on the form and they find something. Long list of things you can’t bring in.



Exports: dairy products, lamb, timber



Mt. Cook the highest peak - 13,000 Ft.



A Sound is carved by erosion and then the river valley is drowned. V-shaped and not very deep (Milford is 110 ft). Milford is brownish color from the erosion and has a layer on top of fresh water.



A fjord is u-shaped, very deep, carved by glaciers.



We ended our day by having pub grub and beer and wine off the bar on a patio, with Richard and his son Dean, Barbara, Betty and I. It was lovely as the sun set!! Later Cindy brought her dinner over. The rest of the group got off the bus downtown and ate there at various places.



One more day here in this paradise!!



The cruise ship went out about 45 minutes to the Tasman Sea entrance to the sound