Fiordland Part one

Sorry. This is VERY long, but there's so much to tell you! Our next stop was Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland. We stayed for just one night and then took the 120km drive to Milford Sound. This is said to be one of the most scenic road journeys in the world and it really wasn't bad. En route we saw another mirror lake

some more amazing woodland and yes, these sizes and colours are pretty accurate 

and went through the tiny Homer tunnel which is 1.2km long and has a 1 in10 gradient.

 This was slightly scary. There were extraordinary views which never come out well in photos

even more ferns 

 and The Chasm which is an incredible waterfall and you can see how the stones brought down by the water in full flood (it's very low here) have made huge smooth holes in the rock.

Before we left the UK we booked to stay at Milford Sound Lodge, the only campsite there. Our booking included our overnight stay, breakfast, a nature tour of the sound in a small boat and a visit to a discovery centre. We weren't too sure what to expect, but it was a good deal. The campsite was basic and, as with all of Fiordland, swarming with Sandflies. We locked ourselves in the van at 5.30 and didn't leave again until the morning. Despite this, and being covered in insect repellent and wearing a scarf, hat, and trousers tucked in socks the little buggers still managed to find my fingers. I am still itching now.  Here's a photo of our little vessel. Cruise ships come In to the sound now...

So, now for a lesson in fiords and sounds. We have heard this so many times in the last few days we will never forget. A sound  is made by water erosion and has a V shaped bottom. A fiord is made by a glacier and has a U shaped bottom and has been flooded by the sea. Milford Sound is not a sound at all, it is a fiord. And Doubtful Sound is not a sound either....!  The bottom of the fiords are full of sea water, but the top layer is fresh water coming off the rocks above. This fresh water picks up tannins from the plants and is slightly brown which stops the light going through the water. This in turn gets plants and creatures thinking the water is deeper than it is and things are found there which are usually only found in deep oceans. One of these is back coral which is, in fact, white. It only turns black when it is dead - another one of those facts we have heard too often. Here's a picture of white coral taken from the Discovery Centre which is 10m under water 

And here are a couple of photos of the sound. All sense of size is lost in a photo, but believe me, everything is enormous!

Our package turned out to be excellent value and we were pleased to have been able to make an early start because we had stayed overnight. By the time we left at about 2pm there were coach loads of people who had come up from Queenstown and Te Anau. We had seen and learned so much that we went straight back to our Te Anau campsite - where we booked to do to Doubtful Sound the next day.