Rock, paper, airplane

January 8

Flying to and cruising on Milford Sound

Before today’s episode something requires clearing up. We have always believed we were going to Milford Sound. We found out on our tour it’s not true, even though all the literature and signage says Milford Sound. This place is in point fact a ‘fjord’. I know we were shocked too. Shocked.

I asked the tour guide, “If narrow body of water surrounded on three sides by steep, rocky cliffs is called a ‘fjord’; and on the other hand, a narrow body of water surrounded on three sides by steep, rocky cliffs is called a ‘sound’, pray tell what is the difference? He stared past me and tried to ignore the question. But I persisted. He stammered and his young female assistant jumped in and offered, “A ‘sound’ is a body of water that was formed by erosion. A fjord is a body of water that was formed by ‘glaciers’.

I was about to get into how anyone would know whether Milford was glacier formed or erosion formed, since its formation took place before we had the Discovery Channel, but Susan had me firmly gripped by the elbow, so that question will have to wait. Hopefully the confusion over ‘sound’ versus ‘fjord’ has been permanently put to rest in your mind now.

No clouds or rain and almost no wind make this a perfect day to make up for our washed out flight to Milford Sound. We arrive on the back side of Queenstown Airport and join up with Captain Hank of Air Milford. As we load aboard his Cessna Caravan (single-engine, turbine, fixed-gear aircraft) he motions for Mike to sit in the right seat up front with him. Mike likes.

Soon we rumble down the grass taxiway and turn into what little wind exists and we are off and turning left between mountains as we climb at an anemic 500 feet a minute at 80 knots. I thought this was a turbine airplane. Come on, our old Cessna 340 will outperform this. The Caravan is a dog.

Captain Hank makes this trip four or five times per day so he knows every rock along the way.  Well he does as we almost scrape wingtips on the peaks while he narrates a sightseeing monologue naming each mountain top and glacier along the way. At 8,500 feet we are above the cumulo-granite and headed down hill to the airstrip in Milford Sound. When Hank turns between two jagged peaks, Susan’s xanax starts to wear off.

The air charter operators all fly into the box canyon from the Tasman Sea on the right side of the fjord and out bound along the opposite cliff line. It passes for pattern separation Milford style. About 25 aircraft are on the ground when we arrive.

A short shuttle takes us to our sightseeing boat and we are cruising outbound in the sound. The views are magnificent. Stone cliffs soar almost straight up over 3,000 feet. Waterfalls cascade thousands of feet breaking over the rocks into the blue water of the fjord. We slow down to watch the seals sunning on the rocks. In the return trip, the Captain puts the bow of the ship into a waterfall and those who are demented happily stand under the spray until they are soaked with icy water.

Back to Captain Hank who takes us on a nature walk that leads back to the airstrip. After a quick 35 minutes of rock watching from the airplane as we claw our way from sea level to over 8,000 feet and we are soon pointed downhill to Queenstown airdrome. Nothing I ever do in our airplane will scare Susan after this.

Dinner tonight was arranged for us by our host at Kauri Cliffs last week so we could tour his new hotel in Queenstown. We invited our new Czech friends, Richard and Ria to join us and they accept. The pictures do not do justice to the Matakauri Lodge. The cluster of lodges perches overlooking Lake Wakatipu and each room on the property has a view.

The manager of Matakauri was formerly an assistant manager at Kimberley Lodge in Russell where we were married. We figured out she worked there about two years after we left. Small world? Wait.

Some of you have traveled with Susan and you know she is normally very reserved and shy. However today she came out of her shell and began to talk with everyone in sight. On the flight to Milford she met a young couple from California, Shan and Sonya on their honeymoon. The man grew up in Grapevine, Texas, graduated from Colleyville High, went to MIT, worked for Microsoft, started a software company that he sold to Google and now works at Google. But, that is all she found out about him. They are staying at the Matakauri Lodge where we are having dinner, so we agree to meet for a drink.

We are seated for dinner and we recognize two couples adjacent to our table were also with us at Kauri Cliffs last week, so Susan chats them up. One couple offers they live in Naples, Florida where Susan’s mother resides. The woman asks, “What is your mother’s name?” When told, “Ann Jacobson”, she squealed, “I know Ann Jacobson. We belong to the same temple!” 

Remember the newlywed couple we met on the flight to Milford? At this moment they walked in. So Susan went around the room in introducing everyone.  

In order to describe the young Czech couple’s facial expressions while observing this exchange between Susan and a room full of former strangers who now know each other well, allows me to use a new expression I learned on this trip… “Gob smacked”. It roughly translates to “I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes”.

I have seen this before with this woman and while I am still impressed, I have come to expect it.  

Dinner was great too. Highly recommend Matakauri Lodge.