Having a bloody big mountain range running the length of the south island does make crossing from east to west a right royal pain in the arse. Despite Queenstown being only 30 odd miles from Milford, the road takes a huge loop to the south, making the journey 4 hours if you floor it.
We decided to spend two nights in Te Anau, the last town before Milford, and still 90 minutes of belting round twisting roads. We'd booked a morning cruise on the sound, and hit the road before the convoys of coaches from Queenstown started clogging up the road.
The temperature in Central Otago was 31°C, but this dropped to a rather more chilly 16°C as we approached the west coast. Still, given that Milford gets 7m of annual rainfall over more than 200 days, we were glad of a dry, if overcast day.
We'd opted for the two hour cruise out to the Tasmin Sea and back. Before we set sail the open top deck filled up to standing room only. As soon as the wind chill kicked in, most people bailed for the warm inside. We stuck it out, to photo the mountains rising almost vertically from the waters. The sheer size of the sound only becomes truly apparent when one of the light aircrafts takes off from Milford airport – the planes rise into the sky and then become specks against the towering mountains.
The huge amount of runoff causes a permanent freshwater surface layer, with the dark saline layer starting several metres down. This makes for some interesting diving in the fjords, with deep sea species making them their home. The thought of diving in X°C water did not appeal, however there is an underwater observatory which offers views 5m below the surface. We didn't see anything particularly big and ugly, but it's an interesting enough stop on the return leg.
We returned to Arrowtown in time to celibate Heidi's birthday in the Blue Door. Then next day we'd booked in for some horse riding along the Dart river from Glenorcy. My horse, Brain, was by far the fattest in the paddock, and refused all my attempts to get him to go faster than a trot. Kirsten's, Luke, sounded like Darth Vader. We spent two hours criss-crossing rivers and admiring the beautiful scenery. Mt. Alfred, which sits between the Dart and Rees rivers, is bigger than Ben Nevis, but is dwarfed by the surrounding mountain.
So it was time to say goodbye to Arrowtown and Janice's hospitality. However, we did make a quick stop for me to jump off a bridge.
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