Milford Sound in Fiordland is the number one tourist attraction for many overseas visitors to New Zealand. However, it is not easy to get there. Many tourists choose to take a bus trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound and return in one day. The distance is 608km, round-trip. It takes 4 and a half hours each way and the boat trip on the Sound takes another 2 hours. This is a long day. There is no hotel accommodation at Milford Sound because building is not usually allowed in a National Park.
The road to Milford Sound is difficult for New Zealand Transport to keep open. Today it opened for the first time in a month. It has been closed because of a large rockfall. This mountain road is high, remote, often covered with snow in the winter and a high rainfall often brings down rocks onto the road. Avalanches are another danger. When the road is closed, cruises on the Sound are closed also.
Two weeks ago, Dr Nick Smith, Minister of Conservation, visited the National Park near Queenstown. He has to decide whether to allow an 11km tunnel or a 43km monorail in the National Park. The tunnel would mean a 2 hour journey from Queenstown to Milford Sound. However, this is a National Park and many people do not want to see the environment changed or damaged.
Tourists who have time to spend, can stay at Te Anau which is 2 hours from Milford Sound but some Asian tourists have only a few days in New Zealand. However, 14,000 people –New Zealanders and tourists from all over the world – walk the four-day Milford track each year, starting at Lake Te Anau and finishing at Milford Sound.
Vocabulary
• Milford Sound – a Sound is a Fiord, like a deep lake with mountains around it but it opens to the sea
• tourist attraction – places tourists want to go to
• round-trip – both ways
• remote – a long way from a town
• avalanche – a snow slide down the mountain
• cruise – boat trip
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