Schon allein von unserem Flüsschen an unserem Übernachtungsort waren wir ganz angetan.
We went back to Milford Sound to do a boat trip and actually see Milford Sound and not just Mitre Peak. After some rain the last night we were not quite sure how the weather would be like. But rain is necessary to see plenty of waterfalls, it was just the clouds who were not too promising. See for yourself whether we were lucky this day or not....
Eine zauberhafte fast etwas unwirkliche Kulisse (an almost surreal light gives this river a calm and rather coldish feeling):
Die Berge hingen noch im Nebel und Regenwolken (behind that suspension bridge lie mountains and waterfalls which are still slightly hidden by mist and clouds)
Wir sind schnell nach Milford rein und haben die erste Bootstour gebucht, damit möglichst wenig los ist. Wir haben uns sagen lassen, dass der Milford Sound tagsüber manchmal einer deutschen Autobahn gleicht, so viel wie dort los ist. Um diesem Trubel etwas zu entgehen, wollten wir also gleich morgens los. Auf dem Schiff gab es sogar Frühstück, also perfekt für gefräßige Carinas! ;o) (To make sure we can take lots of pictures with out too many other tourists on board, we took the first boat possible. Carina was happy to find out that a second breakfast with muesli and toast were available for free. So we decided to go for Milford Cruises and started our tour.)
Die Fahrt geht los... (The first waterfall is very close to Milford harbour on the right in driving direction. You might have seen it on a postcard or in a book...)
Am Anfang der Tour war der Himmel noch sehr bedeckt und es hat etwas genieselt. Dies passte aber super zu der Landschaft und gab eine ganz unwirkliche Athmosphäre. Dieser kleine Punkt ist noch ein anderes Boot (für den Größenvergleich) (slight drizzle and very low clouds hid most of the surrounding mountains but whenever one peaked through, they made you feel very small as they loomed high into the sky. You might see a little boat in the centre of the picture.)
viele Wasserfälle, genau wie gewünscht! (It seemed that some clouds were already lifting, revealing unbelievingly long waterfalls. It looked like they would come from the top of the mountains...)
und langsam klarte es immer mehr auf... (just to show you how close we actually were to the mountains)
*traumhaft schön* (the waterfalls were absolutely amazing, no further comments necessary...)
(they really did come from the top of the mountain...)
one of the fours sisters
all four sisters in a row - the scenery was awesome
the mountains were so amazing because of the shear hight and that they vertically rose out of the water
wir fuhren ganz dicht an einen Wasserfall heran... (... our captain was for that reason able to come very close to the mountains. People could take a shower if they wanted to)
... bis wir fast darunter standen (well for the sake of my camera, which is not waterproof I didn't go any closer than that. But I still had to dry my camera due to spray water and plenty of mist)
some waterfalls were further away, surrounded by native forest and massive mountains
... die Bilder sprechen für sich... (we didn't count all the waterfalls but believe me these ones are just a few we are showing you)
die Fahrt verging so schnell, plötzlich waren wir schon am Fjordausgang zum Meer... Milford ist wirklich klein! (compared to Doubtful Sound, Milford is fairly small and fits roughly ten times into it. The picture below shows you the open sea and we are returning to Milford)
Auf dem Rückweg wurden die Wolken immer weniger... (the weather god must have heard our wishes and helped clearing the sky.)
well you get the idea - just amazing -
... und so langsam tastete sich sogar die Sonne hinaus. (as the sun got stronger, clouds started to disappear)
it turned out to be the perfect day to cruise Milford Sound
Die Berge in den Wolkenschleiern zu sehen war fantastisch... (surely pictures can sometimes say more then a thousand words...)
it looked so unreal and again too real. The sea at the bottom, the steeply rising mountains and glacial ice on top of them. I just wondered how this place might look during winter...
leider war die Fahrt viel zu schnell vorbei und wir waren wieder am Anleger... (too bad that Milford Sound is so small, we could have enjoyed this place the whole day...)
Mitre Pike war noch etwas scheu und versteckte sich in den Wolken... (as the clouds disappeared more and more even Mitre Peak showed itself to us. Compared to when we started it was hard to belief that we might actually see him)
ich war zwar nicht scheu, aber musste mich auch vor all den Sandflys verstecken. Immer wenn ich filmen wollte, haben sich die kleinen Biester versucht mir die Hand zu zerstechen. Also, den ganzen Körper einpacken, sammt Hände- und alles was sich nicht einpacken ließ, wurde mit dem Anti-Sandfly-Stick behandelt. (the good thing about the internet is, you don't have to worry about the environment. Carina was quite busy protecting herself against sandflys and decided to put on some gloves and insect repellent. Sandflys just love it when you stand still taking pictures or shooting a video. We have never seen so many of these little creatures at one place. Usually when walking, you would have 20 to 30 of them following you. If you stand still they come to every and I mean EVERY exposed skin an bite you even into lips, which happened to me and sometime later to Carina too. Luckily it did not swell to bad since we felt the sandflys early enough to squeeze them hard.)
... so langsam lichteten sich auch die letzten Wolken... (now it was just a matter of minutes until we would see Mitre Peak in all its glory as seen on most postcards...)
Milford Sound in an especially extended version for you and your widescreen desktop
Wir nutzen das Wetter für einen kleinen, romantischen Spaziergang. Das einzig störende war das nerventötende Gezirpze der Grillen, die überall waren: (this little creature and what by the amount of hissing noise his friends made must have been billions were beside the sandflys another bugging species that made walking along the foreshore a bit uncomfortable. )
but if you just look at the scenery, it makes you easily forget everything else...
Na endlich nicht mehr schüchtern: Mitre Pike in seiner vollen Pracht ;o) (at last Mitre Peak who rises roughly 1700 meters from sea level into the sky :-) )
... jetzt konnten wir auch beruhigt weiter fahren, die Milford Road zurück nach Te Anau.Bei vielen Straßen in Neuseeland gibt es Schilder ob die Straße offen oder gesperrt ist. Anfangs fragten wir uns noch etwas wieso, aber wenn man die Zerstörungswut der Natur hier sieht, weiß man warum (after seeing Mitre Peak which is of course one main reason we went to Milford our mind was at ease and we were happy to drive back to Te Anau. Along the Milford road we saw places where nature showed its mighty forces. The rocky surface of the surrounding mountains gives only little support to growing plants and trees. This is how it might look like when too much water comes down the mountains and takes everything with it.):
Ein kleiner Zwischenstop bei "The Chasm"- Stromschnellen, die sich eindrucksvoll durch den Berg arbeiten. Kommt leider auf dem Foto nicht so gut rüber- alle die mehr sehen wollen und Lust haben dürfen zum Videoabend bei uns vorbei kommen, wenn wir wieder in Deutschland sind ;o) (this time huge amounts of water cut its way through rocks at "The Chasm", again taking trees and everything that is in its way with it...)
Hier wurden massenweise Touribusse durchgeschleust, die ALLES fotografieren ;o) (Of course nobody takes pictures of tourists in New Zealand. But you get to see both sides of New Zealand on our Blog. Milford and some other places are highly frequented by thousands of tourists every day. And although you see beautiful nature you should be reminded that these places are busy like any capital city. Even stranger it appears that animals are not reluctant to meet these tourists, well they are waiting for food but this time the bird didn't get any but he surely is the star for this moment :-) )
Sagenhafte Täler... (once we drove up Milford Road to the Homer tunnel we got to see beautiful valleys...)
und auch hier viele Wasserfälle, die sich den Berg runterschlängeln... (...and again waterfalls everywhere)
... shortly before the Home tunnel ... and don't forget to turn on the light in the tunnel which was quite long and very dark...
Direkt nach dem Homer-Tunnel. Es gibt so viele schöne Ecken hier, so dass wir ein paar kleine Walks machen wollten, um die Gegen etwas zu erkunden... Hier waren wir für eine Stunde unterwegs. Leider hatte Jürgen nach dem Tunnel vergessen das Licht von unserem Auto auszumachen... Und da wir eine etwas ältere Batterie haben, wollte unser Auto nach unserem einstündigen Spaziergan nicht mehr anspringen.Anschieben geht bei Automatik nicht, ein Starthilfekabel hatten wir nicht *mhhh*.
Autos gab es mehr als genug, die an diesem Ort anhielten, die Problematik war nur, dass es sich immer um Touris in gemieteten Autos handelte die -wie ihr sicher schon richtig vermutet- kein solches Kabel standartmäßig dabei haben. Nach einer Stunde hatten wir endlich Glück und ein Local-Pärchen konnte uns erlösen und uns Starthilfe geben...
...and well don't forget to switch of the lights once you are out of the tunnel. Ups I guess I forgot about that... Well after an one hour walk our battery was drained and the car just wanted to stay at exactly the same place. We do have a diesel but an automatic and not jump start cable. Unfortunately most rental cars don't have a jump start cable either, so we were stuck with no cell phone coverage. Luckily there were enough backpackers coming through and after one hour of asking almost everyone we were able to get onto the road again.
Rechts unten erkennt man den Homer-Tunnel (picture from our walking trip *still unaware that our lights are on* the Homer tunnel on the right):
Homer tunnel on the left:
grade als wir losfahren wollten, bekamen wir dann auch noch besuch von einem Kea... Gut, dass wir weiterfahren konnten, so gaben wir ihm keine Gelegenheit an unseren (eh fast nicht mehr vorhandenen) Gummidichtungen zu knabbern... (and just before we wanted to drive off we saw our first wild Kea. Again we were lucky we didn't have to stay overnight, I'm sure our car would have missed lots of other parts once this Kea would have called his friends...)
Die Fahrt zum Milford Sound und zurück ist eigentlich genau so schön wie die Bootsfahrt dort...
Nach einem weiteren kleinen Walk (wir wollten uns schon mal auf den nächsten Tag einstimmen, an dem wir viel Wandern gehen wollten) hatte man auch noch mal einen schönen Blick auf einen Wasserfall... (on our way to Te Anau we stopped to see the Humboldt falls. Our car was running again and so did we, sure the lights were off this time)
... und morgen wird gewandert... (and an almost Tongariro like walk was waiting for us tomorrow...)
