My Milford sound bus tour would pick me up at 6:50. This meant a 6AM
start for me. Thank goodness I'm a morning person. But my poor host had
to listen to me scramble around for 15 minutes getting ready. But the view in the morning was just as fabulous as during the day!
The bus driver was great! He had an American wife, so when he discovered there were three Americans on board he calculated the differences between miles and kilometers. This wouldn't have mattered much for me, I've been doing it for ages now. But one lady was visiting her daughter and seemed like she appreciated it quite a lot.
The first thing we saw was... Dun tinnin nah!!! Mountains. The Remarkables. These mountains truly run north to south. The first settlers thought this was quite remarkable so they named them The Remarkables.
The next thing we drove past and learned about was a glacier carved U
shaped lake. This is Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake in New
Zealand. As with all things large and awesome the lake had a bit of a
legend behind it.
And the legend goes...
A giant named Matau kidnapped a beautiful Moari princess. This
princess, Manata, was in love with a young Moari warrior and had been
refused by her father (the chief) to marry him. When the young warrior,
Matakauri, discovers that she has been kidnapped he runs to rescue her.
The chief had also promised his daughters hand in marriage to any man
that could save her from the giant. This only fuels Matakauri's need to
rescue his love.
On his way to slay the giant Matakauri meets wise man in the mountains. The wise man tells him secrete of the giant Matau. When a hot westerly wind blows the giant sleeps and does not wake until the wind is still.
So Matakauri hiked the mountain and waits for the westerly wind. When it comes he runs down the valley where the giant Matau is sleeping and tries to cut the princess free from her binds. But the giant was very clever and had tied the Princess with magical rope. the princess was so distraught at not being able to go free she started crying. These were not tears of disspear of dying, but tears for the loss of her life with her love. The tears of Love broke the magical rope and both Matakauri and Manata Returned the the village.
The chief was very happy, but he knew when the giant Matau awoke he would be angry. The chief wanted to make sure he would never be a problem again. So he sent Matakauri to kill the giant.
Matakauri gathered all sorts of brush and dried wood and surrounded the sleeping Matau with it. He then burns the giant. The fire burned so hot that it burnt a hole in the ground the shape of the giant. It also Melted the surrounding snow and ice in the mountains creating the lake.
Some say the giant's Heart is still alive, under the water. Water rises and falls every 20 minutes and there is no scientific explanation to this day. Well there is a theory...science says it is due to fluctuating atmospheric pressures.
Don't you just love stuff like that. I never get tired of creation stories. They are so entertaining.
The Maoris never settled in Queenstown, it was just too cold for them. You got to remember there were no mammals except a fruit bat. So their clothing was made of feathers and native plants like flax. They did have summer settlements they used on their way to collect greenstone, though. These were mainly used in the summer.
One the 3 hour bus ride we passed many farms; mostly sheep, dairy and venison. New Zealand is the first place in the world that created deer farms.
This started with importing deer to hunt and making New Zealand into a gentleman's sporting paradise. As with all introduced animals, this was
disastrous. It quickly lead to over population and the deer eating
everything from one end of the country to the other.
This lead to the deer being hunted on commission by the government. Trappers would be transported to remote areas and dropped supplies every once in a while. They didn't do anything with the deer carcasses at first; only collected the tails to prove their kills. This didn't do much to decrease the population, more like maintain it.
When Kiwis discovered Helicopter
hunting, is when the population really started to decline. Also by this
time deer was considered quite valuable with exporting the meat to
Europe and the horns to Asia to make medicines. They could kill up to
100 deer a day with these tactics making a very profitable business.
It was still illegal to farm deer at this point but the hunters pleaded with the government to change the laws so they could more easily turn a profit. Once this happened they had to capture the deer in order to make the farms.
Can you imagine a man jumping out of a helicopter onto a
deer and hog tying it? Because that's what they did before net guns
were introduced. It sounds like a dangerous job to me, but the money
made it worth it. Now local hunters keep the remaining wild population
at bay and I'm pretty sure no one is jumping out of helicopters trying
to hogtie a deer.
Next we drove past Lake Te Anau, cave of rushing water. It's called this because hundreds of underground rivers feed the lake and have carved out hundreds of caves along the lake. There is a famous glow worm cave boat tour you can take if you fancy. This lake has the last town, Te Anau, before we head to Milford sound and Fiordland National Park. Our destination!
Random facts gleaned from our tour guide:
Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand were part of an ancient super continent: Gondwana. Patagonia (where I have been before) and NZ are relatives. Theses places have similar plant life, ferns,
beech trees and basically anything you can find in a Nothofagus forest.
New Zealand, when split from Gondwana, was submerged for a bit, that's why there were no native mammals when the Maori came, except fruit bat.
Possum fur is environmentally friendly. Hunting possum protects New Zealand flora and fauna from this introduced animal. They not only eat the flora, but also decided the native bird eggs are tasty. In their native environment, Australia, they do not eat eggs.
Water from glaciers is blue because as the glacier moves it grinds up rock into a powder finer than dust. This eventually dissolves in the water, changing the refractive composition of the water.
Milford sound and the surrounding areas often Manually set off avalanches in winter. There are probes all over Milford sound to help detect where an avalanche might occur, so it can be safely dealt with.
... and back to the trip.
We stopped in a few places before we actually reached Milford sound.
The above photos are the Golden Eglinton Valley.
Mirror lake. It was a bit to windy for a perfect reflection. But look at the sign!!!
Leading up to the famous Homer Tunnel.
The Homer Tunnel is 1.3 kilometers and took 20 years to build. Of course it might have been difficult to dig under a mountain in the 1940s.
The Chasm. This photo spot, and really all of the Milford sound has a little legend to it.
According to Maori Legend, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) was carved out by Tu-te-raki-whanoa, an atua (godly figure) who was given the task of shaping the Fiordland coast. Chanting a powerful karakia (prayer), he hacked at the towering rock walls with his toki (adze) called Te Hamo. Milford Sound was the last fiord that he shaped and he considered it his masterpiece.
The climax of the trip would be the ferry ride through the sound. It was just beautiful.
I had some waterfall action.
Then there is always the delightful seals.
a pirate ship.
and my favorite view.
The summary of the trip.
After the hour ferry ride it was time to drive back to Queenstown, about 4 hours away. The drive was still beautiful, but when I got there I was tired as. I ended up wandered around aimlessly for about a half-hour then got a Fergburger and a beer. I hiked back to house and enjoyed both with the sunset.
The bus driver was great! He had an American wife, so when he discovered there were three Americans on board he calculated the differences between miles and kilometers. This wouldn't have mattered much for me, I've been doing it for ages now. But one lady was visiting her daughter and seemed like she appreciated it quite a lot.
The first thing we saw was... Dun tinnin nah!!! Mountains. The Remarkables. These mountains truly run north to south. The first settlers thought this was quite remarkable so they named them The Remarkables.
 |
| not my photo, but stunning |
And the legend goes...
A giant named Matau kidnapped a beautiful Moari princess. This
princess, Manata, was in love with a young Moari warrior and had been
refused by her father (the chief) to marry him. When the young warrior,
Matakauri, discovers that she has been kidnapped he runs to rescue her.
The chief had also promised his daughters hand in marriage to any man
that could save her from the giant. This only fuels Matakauri's need to
rescue his love.On his way to slay the giant Matakauri meets wise man in the mountains. The wise man tells him secrete of the giant Matau. When a hot westerly wind blows the giant sleeps and does not wake until the wind is still.
So Matakauri hiked the mountain and waits for the westerly wind. When it comes he runs down the valley where the giant Matau is sleeping and tries to cut the princess free from her binds. But the giant was very clever and had tied the Princess with magical rope. the princess was so distraught at not being able to go free she started crying. These were not tears of disspear of dying, but tears for the loss of her life with her love. The tears of Love broke the magical rope and both Matakauri and Manata Returned the the village.
The chief was very happy, but he knew when the giant Matau awoke he would be angry. The chief wanted to make sure he would never be a problem again. So he sent Matakauri to kill the giant.
Matakauri gathered all sorts of brush and dried wood and surrounded the sleeping Matau with it. He then burns the giant. The fire burned so hot that it burnt a hole in the ground the shape of the giant. It also Melted the surrounding snow and ice in the mountains creating the lake.
Some say the giant's Heart is still alive, under the water. Water rises and falls every 20 minutes and there is no scientific explanation to this day. Well there is a theory...science says it is due to fluctuating atmospheric pressures.
Don't you just love stuff like that. I never get tired of creation stories. They are so entertaining.
The Maoris never settled in Queenstown, it was just too cold for them. You got to remember there were no mammals except a fruit bat. So their clothing was made of feathers and native plants like flax. They did have summer settlements they used on their way to collect greenstone, though. These were mainly used in the summer.
 |
| on the bus |
 |
| on the bus |
This lead to the deer being hunted on commission by the government. Trappers would be transported to remote areas and dropped supplies every once in a while. They didn't do anything with the deer carcasses at first; only collected the tails to prove their kills. This didn't do much to decrease the population, more like maintain it.
It was still illegal to farm deer at this point but the hunters pleaded with the government to change the laws so they could more easily turn a profit. Once this happened they had to capture the deer in order to make the farms.
Next we drove past Lake Te Anau, cave of rushing water. It's called this because hundreds of underground rivers feed the lake and have carved out hundreds of caves along the lake. There is a famous glow worm cave boat tour you can take if you fancy. This lake has the last town, Te Anau, before we head to Milford sound and Fiordland National Park. Our destination!
Random facts gleaned from our tour guide:
New Zealand, when split from Gondwana, was submerged for a bit, that's why there were no native mammals when the Maori came, except fruit bat.
Possum fur is environmentally friendly. Hunting possum protects New Zealand flora and fauna from this introduced animal. They not only eat the flora, but also decided the native bird eggs are tasty. In their native environment, Australia, they do not eat eggs.
 |
| Just in case you didn't know |
Water from glaciers is blue because as the glacier moves it grinds up rock into a powder finer than dust. This eventually dissolves in the water, changing the refractive composition of the water.
Milford sound and the surrounding areas often Manually set off avalanches in winter. There are probes all over Milford sound to help detect where an avalanche might occur, so it can be safely dealt with.
... and back to the trip.
We stopped in a few places before we actually reached Milford sound.
The Homer Tunnel is 1.3 kilometers and took 20 years to build. Of course it might have been difficult to dig under a mountain in the 1940s.
The Chasm. This photo spot, and really all of the Milford sound has a little legend to it.
According to Maori Legend, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) was carved out by Tu-te-raki-whanoa, an atua (godly figure) who was given the task of shaping the Fiordland coast. Chanting a powerful karakia (prayer), he hacked at the towering rock walls with his toki (adze) called Te Hamo. Milford Sound was the last fiord that he shaped and he considered it his masterpiece.
 |
| pretty amazing |
The climax of the trip would be the ferry ride through the sound. It was just beautiful.
 |
| our ferry |
Then there is always the delightful seals.
a pirate ship.
and my favorite view.
The summary of the trip.
After the hour ferry ride it was time to drive back to Queenstown, about 4 hours away. The drive was still beautiful, but when I got there I was tired as. I ended up wandered around aimlessly for about a half-hour then got a Fergburger and a beer. I hiked back to house and enjoyed both with the sunset.
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