Chasing Waterfalls

Hello again! Time flies as they say and I sit here only a short week away from leaving this beautiful country! I cannot believe that a full month has passed. We've crammed a lot of miles into our time here. Soon we will leave the majestic mountains and beaches of tiny New Zealand for the grandeur and wide open spaces of Australia. But there is much left to tell you of our trip in the South Island. Let's get started then...
After leaving the base of Fox Glacier, we headed out for a much anticipated visit to Queenstown and Milford Sound. Queenstown has been advertised as the action sport capital of the world - a place where you can buy a package that takes you skydiving, bungy jumping and whitewater rafting - all in the same day! Sadly (or conveniently depending on how you look at it), I don't have that kind of cash to blow so we were headed there for the scenery more than anything else.
On our way to Milford Sound, we spent a great night in a little place called Glenorchy. It's about an hour outside of Queenstown, nestled next to a lake of stunning blue only diminished by the majestic peaks of the mountains surrounding it. The drive to the town was incredible. We also spent a fun filled night at the only pub in town - a tiny joint attached to the Glenorchy Hotel. Lisa managed to stumble into a free Texas Hold 'Em tournament and I got to talk to the local crowd made up mostly of people working for adventure companies (skydiving, rafting etc) or people in town to partake in the adventures offered. We met a great couple from Sweden about our age who shared with us some great stories about traveling abroad and living in Sweden. It was an all around enjoyable night (even if Lisa didn't win the big $40 bar tab pot for the tournament!).
The next day, filled up on the amazing Fergburger's Burger (Desirae's suggestion), we headed for Te Anau - the gateway to Fjordland in the southwest of the island. When we arrived the sky was overcast but the lady at the information office said that is to be expected. We had decided to take a "mini-cruise" in Milford Sound. I had vague images from a TV special many months earlier concerning Milford Sound but my attention span for the show - and our guidebooks - had waned long before Milford Sound had been adequately described. I didn't know much about the sound other than it was a body of water carved out by glaciers and led to the Tasman Sea. Anyway, we booked the cruise and hit the road to spend the night at Gunn's Camp which was as close as we could get to Milford but still and hour away.
Gunn's Camp was an interesting place in itself. Barebones and basic, the camp power was a giant generator that was shut down every night at 10:30. We would have enjoyed it more had there been more sunny and less rain...
6:30 am comes early no matter what hemisphere you are in. I had woken up several times in the night to the sound of pounding rain and dawn was no different. The sky was a depressing shade of gray. How were we going to see anything in this rain?
We drove the last hour to Milford in soggy silence. The land began to open up and even in the rainy mist, an intriguing landscape began to come to light. The mountains were formed from some dark rock. Shear cliffs and slick rock faces surrounded us. From these jagged peaks hundreds of of waterfalls sprang and toppled downward. The shear number and height of these falls was astounding. The mountains seemed to be where the low clouds were emerging from. Every crevice and cliff seemed to give birth to a gray or white cloud.
And every mountainside was streaked with waterfalls. Most were dainty - a sliver of cascading water as thin as a loose thread on a shirt. They looked like wrinkles on the ancient mountain faces.
We watched in wonder as these silver springs continued the length of the great valley we drove through. After a nerve-racking drive through a tunnel carved from this enormous mountain of stone (even Lisa admitted it was uncomfortable - I was so happy it was her turn to drive!), we emerged on the opposite side. Milford Sound lay directly ahead of us - or it would have had it not been cloaked in thick clouds and pouring rain.
We went straight to the reception area to find out what our options were. It seemed a shame to pay $60 for a replay of the soggy hike to Fox Glacier. We were told that we could postpone our departure time for a later cruise and hope that the rain was just a passing phase.
It was not. We postponed until 11:30 and parked our van among other travelers waiting on the same thing - the sun. After a quick nap we woke to - you guessed it - more rain. We postponed again until 1:50.
This time we headed to the little cafe to kill time. We drank coffee and played darts all the while anxiously watching the weather. At 1:30 we were sitting in our van watching as rain gave way to momentary sunlight and then poured forth again.
After much discussion, we decided to fore go the cruise. What good would it be if we couldn't see for the rain? Once more I returned to the reception area. By now the lady behind the desk had a look on her face somewhere between exhaustion and exasperation when I walked up. I told her we wanted a refund - the rain just wouldn't give. She looked at me with a degree of pity, "it rains 200 days out of the year. The boats covered. You'll be upset if you drove all this way and don't go." Something told me she was right.
Less than 15 minutes later we boarded the small vessel and took our seats and the free coffee they offered. The boat wasn't large by any means. It held about 75 people max but with the inclement weather there might have been 35 passengers at the most.
The main area was enclosed with windows all around. The bow and stern were open as was a small deck on top. Early on we made friends with two Israeli guys our age and spent most of the cruise talking to them.
As soon as we got on the water any thoughts of $60 wasted disappeared. Light rain accompanied us most of the way but if anything it added to this surreal experience.
As previously noted, I had little respect for glaciers prior to this trip but I had seen my share of pictures and knew what to expect in short if not exactly. And I've perused many photo albums and coffee table books brimming with pictures of beaches that, while dim in comparison to seeing the beach firsthand, at least primed my imagination for such experiences. However, I had never seen nor read about what I saw on that small ship. Granted I had seen photos of a singular waterfall plummeting into a crystal pool but never had I seen or read about hundreds of waterfalls from slivers of silver to gushing torrents of frothy water bursting off of shadowy rock and diving directly into the ocean. The grandeur of the Sound prevents anyone with less than a very expensive wide angle lensed camera from even capturing it on film.
But it wasn't just the waterfalls, it was the cliffs of pure stone, cracked and molded into an element so powerful it seemed statuesque. It was the trees clinging directly to the rock face, supporting the roots of each other creating a forest with no dirt, an amazing proof of Life's indescribable will to prevail, to continue, to expand.
Green trees thriving on their pure will to survive, granite rock withstanding ice and wind and rain, the gray-green ocean patiently prying away at the mountains and elegant, powerful waterfalls crowning it all with their numerous plummets into the sea - that is Milford Sound. A place I never knew existed until I took the advice of a stranger to get on a boat I felt sure was destined for gloomy skies and pouring rain. In a word, it was magical - like the first time you find a hidden tree house as a child, a place thats awesome qualities are unexpected and therefore all the more wonderful. All of the boats occupants looked child-like gazing up at the peaks clothed in clouds from which magical waters sprang.
Lisa and I spent as much time outside as possible. The rain became refreshing instead of depressing. It would have been different had the sun been out - not better, just different.
The cruise was over too soon. Back on land, I marveled at the surprises that this world has to offer if only you will look past the rain...

More to come later. Miss you all from the road...