Milford Sound Kayak Trip

On Tuesday, we’d planned to do a 1 day kayaking adventure on Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park:

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We’d reserved spots with the Fiordland Wildlife Expeditions group, and they came to collect us at 6:30 on Tuesday morning.  We hopped in the van and, after collecting the other members in our group – 8 in total – we were off for Milford Sound.  The drive was about 2 hours and NOT for those prone to motion sickness.  But the views were spectacular.  We stopped a few times for a quick photo shoot.  Here's Mirror Lake:

Click to enlarge and check out the text.  The point was that you could see the mountains reflected, but the sun rising over the mountains made pictures a bit tricky. 

(With the first mug of coffee/tea for the day.)

Even after only 3 days in and around the Southern Alps, I’m starting to get used to them.  Phenomenal backdrops for every photo? Sure!  Breathtaking scenery on every drive? No problem!  Resort-worthy views from every cheap hotel room?  Done!  It’s amazing how quickly we humans start to see even the oddest/most remarkable/spectacular things as commonplace parts of our surroundings.  I keep poking myself, reminding me to marvel at every view, because in a few more days, we’ll be gone.

BUT – it was Tuesday, and we weren’t gone. In fact, we were very, VERY much present, on the shore of Milford Sound with 3 other couples, our guide, and a TON of gear: poly tops & bottoms, fleeces, waterproof jackets, spray skirts, lifejackets – and I felt like a 3 year old bundled up in a snowsuit.  (Thankfully, I peed before I got suited up.)

These sound area receive between 3 and 5 METERS of rain every year, and have ~200 rainy days.  But on the day we went, they were in the midst of a 3 week drought.  Things were still pretty lush & green, but we benefitted from the warm, sunny weather – and by the time we hopped in the boats, I’d eschewed most of my layers.

After some elementary paddling lessons and a safety briefing (if your kayak flips, pull your spray skirt, then remember the three B’s: Breathe, Buddy, Boat), we headed out onto the water.  Unbeknownst to me until we were actually booking the trip, Kee-Min is a fairly accomplished sea kayaker.  I’d paddled around some lakes in Maine and such, but he’d actually taken classes/courses, and was certified to some level.  The upside: I had an experienced partner. The downside: It’s always tricky to take instructions/lessons from your spouse.  But he was a good sport while I grumbled, and we fell into a pretty smooth paddling rhythm.

Note: A kayak has PADDLES.  Do not call them oars.  Your guide will quickly and strongly correct you.  And, if you’re in New Zealand, this correction will sound like, “Not oars. Canoes have oars.  We have PEDALS.”

We started in some gentler water, and paddled out for about 2 hours, taking in the mountains and scenery.  In this area, there are some permanent waterfalls, and many others that spring out of the rocks when it rains.  Here, you can see one of the permanent ones:

It’s hard to express scale in these photos, because everything is just SO big – rock formations 6 km across the Sound look quite close, when compared to the height of the mountains.  But the waterfall above is ~160 meters high.  For you Americans: Close your eyes and guess how high Niagara Falls is.  Come on, just try it.

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Fifty meters.  Yup, this sucker is 3 times higher.  I fact-checked this twice, because I couldn’t believe it myself. C-razy.

Other interesting fact about the Milford Sound (and all of the Sounds in the area, actually) – they aren’t Sounds at all, but rather Fjords!  Go figure.  They were misnamed by early explorers, and those names stuck.  Just so you can sleep tonight, I'll provide you with the proper definitions:  The two features appear similar from the water, but a Sound has a ‘V’ at the bottom, because it is cut by a river; a Fjord has a flat bottom, because it is scraped out by a glacier.  So although all of the inlets are called “Sounds”, “Fiordland” is actually the more geologically correct name.

We paddled to the shore to enjoy lunch and some hot drinks.  (New Zealanders are slightly obsessed with hot drinks.  Everywhere we go, there is free tea and instant coffee.) 

After lunch, we spent about 30-45 minutes paddling toward the ocean (although we were still 15 km away) through some stronger, rougher waves.  This was super fun!  Our two-person kayaks were quite stable, and as long as we kept it pointed into the waves, we just rode them up & down.  Then, we joined up with the other kayaks, raised a sail, and sailed back to shore.  Someone from our group has photos of this, but they haven’t been exchanged yet.  Suffice to say, it was pretty neat to make our kayaks into a raft and a piece of fabric into a sail.

Upon returning to shore, we cleaned up the boats, turned in our gear, got changed, hopped back on the bus, and promptly fell asleep for the 2 hour trip back.  Overall, it was quite a fun day.  While at times I felt like I was on an assembly line: being dressed in costume, herded from here to there, etc – the F.W.E. company does do a good job of getting inexperienced paddlers outfitted, prepped, and into a kayak for 4 hours of paddling.  Further, despite being 2 hours away from most other civilization, there was actually quite a lot of activity – cruise ships, other kayakers, etc.  The area wasn’t nearly as deserted as I’d expected – although with the scale of the natural world, a few ships here and there hardly mattered.

And that was that.  We got home, cleaned our gear, and grabbed some mediocre Italian food.  We even splurged for dessert and in doing so, discovered Teaberries (cross between raspberry and blackberry: they look like blackberries, and taste like a mixture of the two).  Then, we fell fast, fast asleep in preparation for Wednesday’s “Rest Day”.