Sunday morning we left Queenstown at 5:30am and drove to Milford Sound to go on a scenic boat cruise. The drive was phenomenal through Fiordland, which is a national park in the southwest corner of the south island in New Zealand, covering over 3 million acres. We drove thru the amazing Homer Tunnel and around and over beautiful mountains. Once we reached Milford, we boarded a boat to take in the scenery from the water. The fiords are remarkable, having been carved out from glaciers many many years ago. As the glaciers slid down the mountains, they pushed away all the soft rock, leaving sheer cliff faces behind and allowing the sea water to move into the troughs that were created. Because the cliffs are so huge they really dwarf the size of everything around them. We saw several waterfalls that were 400, 500, even 600 feet high, but
they looked very normal compared to the size of the cliffs. We were just a small speck in a very large Fiordland. After our 3 hour boat tour, we got back on the road to our hotel in Te Anau. On Monday we drove just a little south from Te Anau to Manapouri to experience Doubtful Sound. Like Milford, Doubtful is also a fiord, but it is much harder to reach from the mainland. We took a boat across Lake Manapouri, which took almost an hour. Then we boarded a bus to travel through Wilmot Pass over to Doubtful Sound, on a road that is completely isolated from any other road in New Zealand. Once we reached the edge of Doubtful Sound, we boarded another boat to cruise around
for 3 hours taking in the sites. Doubtful Sound is much bigger than Milford Sound with 10 times more surface area and 3 times longer. After our boat tour we drove back over to the lake where we took a tour of the Manapouri Power Station. The hydroelectric power station is underground in a mountain beside the lake in solid granite rock. Water from the lake is used to create electricity for parts of New Zealand. After the power station tour we traveled back across the lake, where we ended our journey for the day. The last to days in Fiordland have been really amazing. The photos and descriptions will never be able to explain this amazing untouched area of New Zealand. It is spectacular!
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