Today we took a tour bus into Fiordland National Park to see Milford Sound and two things were confirmed. One, tour groups suck. Let us clarify, our guide was great and touring by bus was convenient but having to go everywhere by group sucked! Every pit stop, every photo-op, everywhere, all the time. It doesn't help that we are accustom to walking on the right side of the sidewalk, just like we drive on the right side of the road and everyone here is accustom to the opposite! Two, Milford Sound is … the only word that came to mind as we were staring down this infamous river with its soaring, snow covered peaks was, majestic.
A few of the most interesting things we learned on our trek:
The trees comprising the forest that engulfs Fiordland National Park grow almost entirely on rock and with minimal top soil (meter at deepest). They survive by intertwining themselves with each other for support on the steep slopes of these dramatic mountains (P.S. there is such a thing as a tree avalanche). Speaking of avalanches, they are capable of creating wind gusts in excess of 250 mph. Avalanches in the Fiordland National Park are a frequent occurrence. We drove past 50 avalanche paths from the entrance of FNP to the entrance of Milford Sound. FNP receives 30 feet of rain a year and experiences 2,000 earthquakes. New Zealand was much a bird sanctuary prior to human involvement. Humans introduced a number of predators that have led to a decline and in some cases the extinction of bird populations, especially among flightless bird groups. Conservation efforts by the NZ government have allocated FNP as a safe haven for NZ’s birds and are going to great efforts to eliminate predators from the park grounds. Milford Road is among the most beautiful drives in NZ and is the most expensive road to maintain. Milford Sound is inappropriately named as it is not a sound at all. Milford Sound was created by a glacier and is therefore a fiord.
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