Hey everyone,
Before I start this, the first entry of my continued travels of New Zealand, I must first say that this is the second attempt at this update. The first update took me about an hour and a half of inspired writing and then as these things go, just as I tried to publish, the blog website screwed up and I lost everything. So here is round two, unfortunatly due to time it wont be as complete but hopefully it is as good as my first try...

So here I am, on the road again in search of adventure and experience on the South Island of New Zealand. After spending two days saying goodbye to everyone I had come to know in Wanaka, I was finally on the road. It was a fitting departure from Wanaka, after a week of variable weather between rain and wind to sun, I left on a day of calm with the sun shinning bright over the lake.

I made my way over the Crown Range to Queenstown where I stocked up on provisions and diesel for Waka Tui. I then headed south through the iconic green rolling hills of NZ, filled with sheep. I cruised south until Te Anau where I got on the Milford road and headed towards the darkening horizon. Soon I was into a driving rainstorm and a lush canopy of rainforest. The road to milford winds its way up a glacial valley, filled with misty viewpoints, thousands of streams and tonnes of gorgious pocket lakes. I made my way up until the last campground before the pass and decided that was where I would spend the night. At the head of a small lake named Lake Gunn, I made dinner looking up through the vail of rain to the ghostly silouettes of the mountains towering above.

I awoke early this morning to more rain drumming on the roof. After a quick breaky, I returned to the road up the pass. As it winds upwards, the lush misty rainforest gives way to an incredible alpine valley. During the winter, this stretch of highway is one of the most avalanche prone sections of road in the road. The average is about one slide a day, and a full time clearing crew keeps it clear as much as they can. This section of the road has a striking resemblance to Rogers Pass back in Canada, with a windy road hewn out of rock into an area that looks almost impassable. The only difference between the two is that the Milford pass has vertical rock walls stretching into the mist, and at the top, these walls converge to create a solid and impenatrable wall. The road seems to wind straight towards this wall until right at the top, when the road crests and flattens out. At this point you plunge into the darkness that is the Homer Tunnel.

The Homer Tunnel was "completed" in the 30's, but still doesnt have any lights inside and has a strange cave-like feeling due to its rough, dripping walls. Thankfully I drove through at an early hour, because the tunnel is barely wide enough to pass a car going the next direction (not to mention the hundreds of tour buses that ply the road everyday from Queenstown and Te Anau). Finally after over a kilometer underground, the tunnel imerges back into the daylight on the other side of the pass. Again, the road winds down through an incredible valley towards a lush rainforest and with the rain pouring down there was more water then I have ever seen before. The rock walls were covered in thousands of waterfalls ranging from little trickles to huge torrents, everywhere I looked there was another cascade. There are also hundreds of streams and rivers that crisscross the valley and the road crosses too many bridges to count, and everyone goes over another torrent of white water.

The only time I have ever seen this much water, was the great storm that flooded southern Alberta last year. Every turn down the road brought another bout of deja vu from driving home in that storm. At every point there was water somewhere and alot of the time streams flowed beside, under and even OVER the highway.

Finally after pushing through the rainforest and the constant downpour I finally found myself looking into Milford Sound. I threw on my rainjacket, grabbed my camera and ran to the cruise center. At first I was a little timid about taking a cruise, at $65 a cruise, it takes a pretty big bite out of my budget, where $700 nz is supposed to see me all the way until I leave NZ in a month. I talked myself over these worries because this could be the only time I see Milford Sound and I have heard time and time again how impressive it is out on the water. I chose my specific cruise out of the 5-6 different companies plying their trade because it seemed not only the best value but the most interesting trip.

Soon we boarded our boat, an 8m aluminium craft that although wasnt as flash as some of the big cats the other companies were using, looked alot more ocean going. My choice of cruise was validated almost right away, our crew of two (including captain) was extremely knowledgable as well as excited to show us around. They also had a very nice policy that you could go where ever you wished on the boat, and as a result I spent alot of time up in the pilothouse with the captian learning not only about the workings of the ship, but about the various geology, flora and fauna of the fiords. I also spent alot of time getting thoroughly soaked by the rain standing out on the deck of the boat trying in vain to take pictures of everything. Our captain was incredible, bringing us in close to the vertical walls of the sound, once no more then a foot away from the cliffs. We were so close that everyone thought the surf would smash us to pieces on the rocks, but the captain held us steady and gave us an amazing look at the rock formations as well as an up close and personal look at a small family of fur seals.

I cannot properly describe Milford sound. It is similar to other areas in Canada such as the Queen Charlotte Islands and Lake O'hara in that it has to be personally seen to truly comprehend the immense beauty. The vertical rock walls tower up to 1500 meters straight above the raging surf, with the rain these walls become covered in thousands of cascading waterfalls. When the sun is shining there are only 4 permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound, after a rainfall however (oh, and by the way it is one of the rainiest places on earth, it rains an average of 200 days a year and deposits almost 8M of rain per year!) the water seems to come from everywhere, creating almost one big waterfall for kilometers.

We couldnt venture out to the lighthouse on the Tasman sea due to rough weather conditions, but we did have a chance to see some fur seals, as well as a Fiordland Yellow Crested Penguin (the first penguin I have seen in the wild). The worst thing about Milford sound, including the road to it, is that it is utterly impossible to take enough pictures. I took literally hundreds of pictures and didnt begin to document what I saw. Luckily I burned all my pictures on my camera to CD before I left Wanaka, I had a full memory card and used almost all of it in two days of traveling.

I am now back in Te Anau, from here I am going to venture further south into the Catlins Forest Park. This is the souther tip of the south island, there isnt too many people this far south and I think I will spend the next 2 days camping, taking pictures and exploring on my way along the coast. I have heard alot about the scenery as well as abundant wildlife along the coast, so get ready for more inspired journalism of the voyage. I am glad to be back on the road, and it will be interesting as this time I am traveling alone with a very small budget, so unfortunatly there wont be as many adrenilen filled adventures. I love hearing from everyone at home, hopefully you will all enjoy once again living vicariously through my travels.
cheers,
-Jesse