Places



Stirling Sunriser


This post was published on Saturday 19 January 2019.

When we booked our spot at the Lodge, we had the opportunity also to book a kayak trip with Rosco’s Milford Kayaks – which we did!  We chose the Stirling Sunriser trip: you take a water taxi out beyond the 150m high Stirling Falls, and then kayak back to base.

We were given skin-tight thermals to wear – lovely! – and spray skirts, flotation devices, etc.  Monty told us that if we put our spray skirt on and the ‘oh crap flap’ is underneath the skirt, instead of on top (it’s the thing you pull to get yourself out of the kayak if you go upside-down) we owe him a beer.  Unfortunately despite my best efforts, when putting my skirt back on while kayaking on the Sound, one one occasion it slipped under so I had to give him a beer from the back of our van...

The water taxi out was pretty bumpy – I didn’t really like it – but there was an incredible sunburst.  I didn’t manage to photograph it at its best, but it was beautiful.

Getting into the kayaks wasn’t as bad as I feared.  They were sea kayaks, so they had a rudder and foot pedals for the person at the back to control the steering.  I sat at the back as usual, so I didn’t block Jess’s view of everything (!).

Stirling Falls were spectacular.  We had the opportunity to kayak right underneath them and through the spray – apparently it was once a test of Maori bravery.  We nearly didn’t because I’m a bit chicken, but we figured we are only here once, so we went in and did it – heart pounding, with 150m worth of water pounding down... in actual fact, it’s so high that most of the water turns to mist and spray by the time it reaches the bottom, so it’s more of a stinging than a pounding.

https://youtu.be/T4cHMFY5fDI

The rest of the trip involving moseying along Milford Sound.  Unfortunately due to the storm the day before, there was debris and sea water everywhere – normally, as it is predominantly fresh water, the Sound is clear and the normal beautiful colour of NZ water.

It was also incredibly cloudy, so we didn’t see Mitre Peak up close, and rained on and off, but mercifully the wind didn’t pick up, so it wasn’t dangerous at any point.  According to Monty (our guide) they get 7-10 metres of rainfall every year (not including snow) – just one reason why the Maori never settled there!  They generate all their own power from Bowen Falls (the largest waterfall, near to the harbour), which is glacially fed so flows all year.  It also provides all their own water because there is a turbine in the pipe that brings the water down to the village... what I didn’t ask is what happens to the sewage!

The reason the mountains are so craggy and impressive is that they are solid granite.  Because of that, not much can grow on them, so what happens is that the edges of the cliffs are colonised by moss, and then trees and shrubs attach themselves to the moss, as they would soil.  Their roots grow and intertwine, holding everything together – until a massive rainfall, when the moss dislodges and you get a tree avalanche: a whole section slips down and falls into the Sound!  It then takes 100 years for the trees to grow back, before the whole thing happens again. Tree avalanches can be extremely dangerous for kayaking, so the guides have to be on constant lookout.

The trip was exhausting – 12km – and was particularly hard for me as the pedals for the steering were in the wrong place, so I couldn’t stretch out my legs, which meant my thighs kept cramping.  At one point my feet slipped off the pedals, which was quite scary as to get them back in I had to lift my knee out of the seating area, which hugely rocked the kayak, and we nearly went for a swim...

One of the other couples on the trip was American, and Monty was having great fun spinning them yarns and telling them utter nonsense.  He was telling them things like how to check the wind speed, every morning they BASE jump off the cliffs... and set off bombs to create a controlled tree / snow avalanche to make it safe for the kayaking trips.

Although it was exhausting, the trip was great fun.  Despite the weather not being great, it was still impressive to see the cliffs up close, to see seals lying on the rocks, to see the moss and trees clinging onto the granite rock face, to be in a small group just looking and admiring the sheer incredible size and scale of nature.