March 8, 2011 Milford Sound

Glacier Flying; Sand Beach Landing; Milford Sound Landing; “The World Is Your Oyster;” Manapouri; Home for the Last Time

With Matt and Jo working starting at 7 AM checking the feet of 4500 sheep for foot rot, and giving each shots, Sue arrived at our cottage at 8 AM for our briefing of what we would be doing today. Sugar, despite not having a lot of sleep due to her cast, was all ready to go and so was I. This is our big day - the day we go to Milford Sound, one of the most famous fiords in the world.

We departed over the Eastern Hills again, avoiding an ag plane doing spraying on the ridge line, landing on a strip on the ridge, reloading and taking off again to continue spraying on the ridge and along the sides of the ridge. We flew over Wanaka and entered the Matukituki Gorge in a cruise climb up to 6,500 feet. We turned left entering the West Branch, passing Mt. Rob Roy and glacier with the summit at 8675 feet, Bonar Glacier, past the Pope’s Nose (8856’) to the beautiful Mt, Aspiring (9951’), the Matterhorn of New Zealand, and circled around it to get some pictures. We crossed over the Matukituki Saddle (4915’) , past Mt. Ionia (7434”) to the Olivine Ice Plateau, a shelf of snow and ice at about 7500’. We headed north and then turned west to drop down to the Pacific Ocean and Big Bay.

We descended all the way to 500’ where Sue took the plane and we flew over the beach explaining how we would land at the very northern end of the beach. One plane had already landed. Sue entered a left downwind at 500’, put in 10 degrees of flaps, then turned base just before plowing into the hill of Awarua Point, lining up for final just to the left of the black sandy area, just touching down with full flaps and immediately going to full power to take off, turning the plane over to me. The purpose was to put down some tire tracks of where she wanted me to touch down. I climbed to 500’ feet and basically mimicked what she had done, touching down right at the beginning of the black sand, but staying on the ground. We taxied out of the way of anyone else who might be flying in but were sure to stay in the wet, hardpacked sand and pebbles. We all got out of the plane, and walked around beachcombing and taking a few pictures. The sea smelled nice to us and it was still cool with an offshore breeze from the east.

We took off, climbed along the southern ridge of Big Bay up to 1000’ and followed the coast south several miles to the entry to Milford Sound, and what a spectacular entry it is, bordered by huge mountains and ridges on each side, a true fiord. The mountains were between 5500 and 7400’ and Sugar and I were awed as I flew up the right hand (southwest) side of the Sound. There was a plane just ahead of us, tourist boats beneath us, and a cruise liner just of the end of runway 11 that we would be using. Our guide last week, Megan, was in the tower handling traffic and with her critiquing me, Sue saying that “a pilot of my experience should have no trouble with this landing”, the pressure was building. But in this instance, I brought it in fine and was able to taxi off to the general aviation parking about 1/2 of the way down the runway without any problem. What a thrill. But there were certainly more to come. We stopped in to say hello to Megan and Sue kidded her about her (Sue) getting the good conditions whereas Megan flew with me on the day we cut short (and I played golf) due to strong wind conditions. The winds were light and variable at Milford Sound.

We grabbed a sandwich for lunch, took a 20 minute walk around the shoreline, said our final goodbye to Megan, and returned to the plane. We took off on runway 29 toward the water, climbed to 1000 feet and then headed southwest into the mountains up the Arthur River Gorge, cruise climbing up to about 4500’ feet until we reached ABW (“another bloody waterfall” to the Kiwis), this one Sutherland Falls and 1800’ high, Sue took the plane, put in 20 degrees of flaps and slowed it to 70 knots, telling me to fly over Lake Quill from which the Falls comes. The lake is in a perfectly circular canyon and the lake itself is circular. The sides of the canyon are high vertical rock faces dwarfing our altitude and Sue assured me that I could fly around in the tiny canyon at slow flight without steep turns. First I crossed the saddle into the canyon, followed the righthand rockface and did a circle to the left at 70 knots with no more than 20 degrees of bank and coming back out and then, at Sue’s suggestion, returning to the canyon and circling from left to right so Sugar would get a better view. This canyon is ridiculously TINY but Sue was right. Now that flying got the adrenaline flowing big time! At one time I turned to Sue and said, “So when I hear the end of the wing scraping the wall, then maybe I should move away a bit?” “Yeh, something like that.”

From Lake Quill, we turned to the west, then south looking out to our right (west) to see Sutherland Sound, then Bligh Sound, turning southeast along Wild Natives River Gorge and then winding our way around the mountains to Mt Irene (6100’) and Coronation Peak (5804’). This is still Fiordland - it is the perfect playground for pilots on a day like today that was getting sunnier and sunnier the more it wore on. As we flew over passes and went up ridges, I would ask Sue which side to be on, or suggest a side, and her reply was “Today, the world is your oyster.” No wind to speak of, no clouds, no other traffic south of Milford Sound - I could do whatever I wanted. We descended to 3500’ to cross Wilmot Pass into the Lake Manapouri region, a large lake just south of Lake Te Anau. We landed on runway 8 at Manapouri Airport, and had a wonderful view of the lakeside and the mountains on the other (western) side. The east side of the lake is all flat valley, and it is beautiful with its green farmland, windbreak trees here and there and the two lakeside towns of Manapouri and Te Anau. Sue refueled the plane, and we all had a snack and glass of water.

Refreshed but feeling that we needed a relatively short day after yesterday, we flew back to Geordie Hill for one last landing here on this grass strip. I was emotional when I shut the plane down here for the last time. Now that I’m beginning to know what to do, it’s time to leave. Tomorrow, we fly to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in NZ, and then to Christchurch to be dropped off so we can pick up our rental car. It’s time to pack and get organized. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep in touch once we are on the road.
Sugar did very well today - no codeine, just Panadol and is very good about trying to keep her arm elevated. She’s a good patient.
We have dinner with Matt and Jo tonight. They will be exhausted - they have been working with their whole crew, plus some extras they’ve hired, since daybreak.
Good night, love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB