Bottom Bus - Te Anau to Milford Sound to Queenstown

This morning was our final day of the Bottom Bus tour. We got picked up at 9am from Te Anau to go to Milford Sound on the Kiwi Experience Milford Explorer Bus. The drive there was unbelievable. We had yet again been lucky with the weather and had a clear sunny day. Our first photo stop was Eglington Valley. The mountains were huge!! Our next stop had a five minute walk down to a mirror lake. It was not as big and impressive as the lakes on the west coast but it still looked good. We then stopped off at a place that had a hanging valley. Here we could stop and fill our water up with the water from the stream. The water was so clear. The mountains in Milford are some of the oldest rock in NZ. The rock here was around in the dinosaur age! We then went for a 15min walk to The Chasm. This was a fast flowing waterfall and the rocks at either side were shaped funny!! We then drove through the Hommer Tunnel which is a tunnel just over 1km long which runs through the mountains. If I remember correctly, for every 10m travelled the tunnel drops 1m. After driving through some gorgeous scenery, we reached Milford Sound and got our first glimpse of Mitre Peak with the water in front of it - a popular picture used for advertising NZ!!We went on a boat cruise along the sound and out to the Tasman Sea. The cruise was fantastic. I've never seen such impressive mountains. The sides of the mountains were nearly vertical, they were so steep! At one point we took the boat right up to a waterfall and filled some glasses with water so we could taste it. We also went under another waterfall so that anyone outside got soaked! I would love to see the size of the waterfalls after some rain. On average the area gets 7m of rain a year and in some years it gets 9m, it has seen 0.5m of rain fall in just a few hours. On average it rains in Milford Sound 2 out of 3 days. So we were lucky to have such clear weather to see the size of it.

We also stopped in past the underwater observatory to see the fish 9m under the surface. It was okay but nothing special really. After the cruise we drove back to Queenstown. The day was fantastic and I think Milford Sound has to be the most stunning place I have been to so far in NZ. The size of it is unbelievable. I will post photos from the cruise as soon as I can. At present they are stored on my cousins computer out at the farm and I am in town at the moment! Anybody coming to NZ - you have to come and visit this area. No matter what the weather is it is supposed to be amazing.