Milford Sound, New Zealand

Anyone familiar with the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings franchises will remember the soaring and steep
mountains with and without snow. These are in the background of Milford Sound and inland as one
drives north up the west coast (the drive and the infamous river from LOTR will be mentioned later).
Luckily we had received a heads up from our friends in Wellington to book these days far in advance due to local holiday and school’s out travelings. We think that the island tipped south and everyone slid
down to this adventure- and sight-dazzling area. We were happy to join them. Our little putt-putt of a car maneuvered the kilometers upon kilometers of winding and narrow hairpin turn roads. (We wished to be driving our beloved Sassy who would have handled them with grace and style.) A long day of car driving was scheduled so that we could take a bus tour all day on Dec. 31 to Milford Sound and the Te Anau Glowworm Caves.

Our accommodations were in Manapouri, a tiny town 12 miles south of Te Anau which can be compared to Moab, UT for its variety of shops (mostly geared to outdoor activity), restaurants (overwhelmed by the rambunctious return of tourism), and traffic. The two of us bested the majority by 25-40 years. Sigh.

Imagine our delight when we discovered our motel overlooked Lake Manapouri with the majestic

mountains of Fiordland National Park and the World Heritage Area in our sliding glass door front. Our
photos will give you a glimpse, but be prepared to see lots of clouds. We didn’t ever get to see tops of
most mountains (except for a brief look up the coast to be narrated later) but the grandeur and awe
were evident.

Luckily, we were overnight in the same motel for two nights, a homecoming of sorts following very full
days. The town of Manapouri was maybe a block long, so the first night we went back to our motel’s
attached bar for a cold beer with our hamburger and steak fries. Bedtime was early as we had to be in
Te Anau (10 miles away) by 7 am to get on our tour bus for the first segment of our tour: Milford Sound.

It is possible to drive oneself, but similar to Yellowstone these days, it’s easier to let someone else
navigate the traffic, the winding roads, and the never-enough parking. Besides, this tour bus was quite
special with glass roof (necessary in tight mountains) and seats that angled to each side so that the aisle
seat didn’t need to lean over the window gawker.

Rain is a key ingredient in this area, we learned. if it doesn’t rain for 5 days, they talk about drought. So, naturally, the tops of mountains are visible with luck and we didn’t have much. So the photos you see with blue skies are brief but beautiful. There is no town at Milford Sound. Just a port, several buildings, and parking, a lot of it not close to the port as finding flat space in this area is really difficult. Clouds were everywhere when we arrived and as we boarded it started to sprinkle. There were small pieces of blue sky mixed with the clouds throughout our two-hour cruise. Because the rain was substantial the previous night all of the temporary waterfalls were gushing and the permanent waterfalls were gushing. We experienced all possible weather permutations of above freezing weather as it was sunny, overcast, intermittent rain and full-on rain.

The boat ride is two hours long as they take you the length of the Sound and out into the roiling open
ocean before returning. Our captain put the nose of our boat right next to the cliffs and under the spray
of several of the falls. It was an amazing display of nature’s glory and a wonderful ride. The bus ride
back was mostly uneventful. We did have to stop for a couple minutes for the one-way tunnel and
watched as the only alpine parrot in the world hopped a ride on a car in front of us and rode it until just
before the tunnel entrance. We also stopped at the Mirror Lakes (ponds) and the rain stopped long
enough for us to get a few pictures with reflections.

Back in Te Anu we had about an hour before our trip to the caves, so we visited a few of the stores near
the tour agent before heading out on another boat ride, this one on Lake Te Anu. It is a big lake and our
enclosed catamaran zipped along for thirty minutes before delivering us to the caves. We had an
introductory talk on the glowworms where we learned they light up when hungry to attract food. They
hope the food gets stuck on what the ranger suggested was a fishing line which is actually regurgitated
sticky goo which looks like small beads spaced on a thread hanging down from the glowworm.

You enter the cave on a metal walkway above a surging underground river. The guide did his best to
talk above the din at several stopping points but was not completely successful. The river was a
maelstrom of raging water, carving at the walls and blasting over several waterfalls. We reached a
quieter section and a light turned on to reveal the twelve-person group before us exiting the small
rowboat-like craft they use to take you the last portion of the trip. We boarded the boat in the dark and
looked up to the cave ceilings which sometimes were only a few feet from our heads. Once our eyes
adjusted, we saw these small dots of light, sometimes grouped in a colony resembling a galaxy of stars,
sometimes in a geometric design looking like points on a large spider web. To describe it as surreal is an understatement. All of us were awed into silence. Or perhaps that is because they request you to be
silent. Not quite sure how they maneuver the boat, but the guide moves it in the dark, maybe by hand
pushing on the cave ceiling. We went out and back to the dock where the lights switched back on and
we left the boat as another group waited to get on. Very efficient and Disney like. We retraced our
steps to the cave entrance then found our way down to the beach before boarding the boat for our
return to Te Anu. The quick moving catamaran returned us to shore and we found a Thai restaurant
that lots of other people enjoyed, too. Any eating establishment that can play on a towns name, “Thai
Anu” should be good. It was slow but good. Many places seem to be understaffed, possibly because
they are getting more people traveling, like they used to, before covid.

Back to the motel to collapse—even though we hadn’t been the drivers that day.