Beating the Odds

When we were planning this trip, we decided to cut our stay in Queenstown in half and move on to Te Anau so that we would be able to easily make a day trip to Milford Sound should the weather cooperate 0n the one day we would be able to go there—not an easy ask for a place that gets 250 inches and 182 days of rain a year!

We were monitoring the weather while we were in Queenstown and it didn’t look good—100% chance of rain forecast for the next two days. We prepared ourselves for a couple of days spent in our hotel room in Te Anau, catching up on reading and sleep. Sure enough, it was pouring and completely socked in as we drove southwest, and remained rainy and unsettled the rest of the day and all that night.

The next day, however, unexpectedly dawned somewhat brighter and the forecast for Milford Sound wasn’t entirely dismal, so we decided to chance it and make the 2+ hour drive to the coast.

All the rain the previous day had fallen as snow on the high peaks lining the road to Milford Sound, giving the already majestic scenery an extra dimension.

The only time I had ever been to Milford Sound, I had hiked in with my family over Christmas 1971, so I had never driven this road before. I knew the sound was spectacularly beautiful, but I had no idea how breath-taking the drive there would be.

The only thing I can compare it to is Yosemite. The towering peaks and river-filled valley are just  stunningly beautiful, and the view as you approach and then emerge from the Homer Tunnel is awe-inspiring.

The sky was cloudy and the road misty as we drove in, but it did not rain, and when we got to the sound ,the sun came out (along with the sandflies, unfortunately) and we felt confident that the weather would permit us to enjoy the full grandeur of Milford sound, justifying the expense of the traditional boat trip through the fjord.

We had time for a quick snack before boarding (joined by a kea and swarms of sandflies), and sailed away under sunny skies.

The snow that had fallen the day before was now melting high on the crags above us, and the walls of Milford Sound were streaming with hundreds of slender glistening waterfalls adding to the many permanent cascades that pour down the faces of the cliffs that line the passage.

We were lucky enough to see both seals and dolphins along the way, and some other ‘creatures’ our pun-loving captain pointed out, including the ‘logness monster’ and the ‘saltwater logodile’.

We also foolishly decided to stay on the outer deck as he steered the boat under a huge waterfall, expecting to get lightly misted but instead getting completely drenched head to toe—an experience the captain called a ‘glacial facial’. It was bracing and refreshing, that’s for sure!

The entire 2 hour boat trip was one splendid scene after another, and although we don’t usually partake of touristy activities like that, this one proved very worthwhile.

As we drove back to Te Anau, we marvelled at our good fortune in beating the weather odds (and gods), as despite the dire forecasts, not one drop of rain fell on us the entire day and the precipitation on the previous day just added to the beauty of an already out of this world scenic panorama.