Major breaking news from NZ on the super scenic Milford Sound and a potential development that raised serious questions. From the Daily Mail in London today, they have this headline: " New Zealand's great fjord Milford Sound is spared the drills - but a wider tourism issue remains" with these highlights: "Depending on your perspective, New Zealand could be described as the end of the world. Last year, I wrote about a growing controversy that was causing tempers to flare amid the pastoral scenery and leafy beauty of the country’s otherwise quiet South Island. The thorn iwas the proposal to build an eight-mile tunnel that would have helped to connect the holiday hotspot of Queenstown with the magnificent fjord of Milford Sound. This would have provided a considerable short-cut for the thousands of tourists who seek out this geological miracle each year. The terrain that surrounds Milford Sound is rugged and almost completely untouched, and a journey to reach it, assuming you are staying in Queenstown, involves a detour of 180 miles – south around the picturesque shore of Lake Wakatipu, west to the resort town of Te Anau, then north again along the snaking surface of State Highway 94, the narrow ribbon that provides the only road access up to the fjord. The construction project would have involved chiselling half a million tonnes of pristine soil from Mount Aspiring National Park and the wider area of Te Wahipounamu – a UNESCO World Heritage site. Over the last 18 months, voices have been raised, protests organised and petitions signed. Today, the verdict is in. And the answer is a resounding no. New Zealand’s Conservation Minister Nick Smith has ruled that the environmental impact of the engineering works would have been significant, having a huge effect on both Mount Aspiring National Park and its neighbour Fiordland National Park (in which Milford Sound sits)."
This UK media author gave this added background on Milford Sound: "Two years ago, I made the pilgrimage to Milford Sound, taking the long way round from Queenstown. The views – the steep flanks of the fjord rearing towards the clouds, their craggy grandeur reflected in the water – made the hours behind the wheel entirely worthwhile. As I drove north, I endured slow progress behind the endless tour buses that were clogging Highway 94. The same army of vehicles was there as I meandered south. They are too big and too cumbersome for the road. But they are an unavoidable product of the beauty of Milford Sound, a place people are desperate to visit. The New Zealand government’s refusal to sanction the construction will not alleviate the pressure that is placed on Fiordland National Park by the wheels that regularly rumble through it. There are many similar cases – sites of colossal historic or cultural importance that are creaking under the weight of our ravenous interest in then. Machu Picchu was designed as a small Inca citadel on a lonely Andean mountain top, but received over one million visitors in 2011. Milford Sound receives some 500,000 visitors a year – the vast majority arriving via a road that is scarcely suitable. When Captain Cook first espied Milford Sound in 1769 while sailing down the coast of the South Island, he saw it in such isolation that he dared not enter from the sea for fear that he would not be able to escape again."
From the Dominion Post newspaper in NZ, they have this headline: "Opponents cheer tunnel decision" with these highlights: "There was jubilation in the south yesterday as a controversial plan to drill a tunnel to cut travel time to Milford Sound was rejected by Conservation Minister Nick Smith. Southland Conservation Board chairwoman and Te Anau resident Viv Shaw said the board was delighted and it appeared the decision was based on the Fiordland and Mt Aspiring National Parks Management Plans. Dr Smith said the $180 million plan to build a route through the Fiordland and Mt Aspiring national parks, halving the travel time for the 420,000 visitors to Milford Sound each year, was beyond what was appropriate for a World Heritage Area and ran counter to the intent of the National Parks Act."
Our plans for January 2014 include not only visiting Milford Sound on the Solstice, but we will be getting off of the ship and taking that longer route around the mountains and lakes to reach Queenstown. It will be interesting to see this full area in person. Sounds very dramatic and scenic!! Good background on this area from these stories today.
Full stories at:
http://travelblog.dailymail.co.uk/20...he-drills.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post...unnel-decision
THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio
Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 135,879 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:
http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/s....php?t=1426474
From the above London newspaper story, here is their map that shows the long and curved current routing around from Milford Sound to Queenstown. The straighter "short-cut tunnel" would be straighter and quicker. But at what price?: