Tunnel of Death and Other Stories

We left Dunedin after visiting the shore. We needed to drive to Milford Sound, across the island. Alex drove Team Efficient's van with Becky as co-pilot, and Derek and I slept in the back. We stopped for dinner halfway along the way, where we were kicked out of a KFC because it was closing time. We protested the way we were being treated (they weren't even sweeping where we were!) by sitting outside until the manager started yelling at us (she was standing behind the counter inside, rendering inaudible, but she was a scary sight).

At about 2 AM, we pulled over to the side of the road to decide what to do. It was dark and raining, but Ben estimated that it was maybe a half hour until the camping site we were trying to find. Alex was feeling tired, so I offered to take on driving since I'd been sleeping for a few hours. I took the wheel, pulled out after Team Competence (Ben was still driving, the trooper), Derek my co-pilot.

The road was dark and winding; it reminded me of portions of Route 17 in Connecticut, just multiplied. I was comfortable enough, though I was driving extremely slowly. The only light was from the high beams, and Team Competence had pulled ahead, being a smaller and manual transmission van. Derek and I listened to one of Alex's mixed tapes and the sound of the windshield wipers as we followed the road, apprehensive every time we went over a one-lane bridge and wondering what sort of landscape was surrounding us.

Suddenly on the left side, I saw a sign for a tunnel. "Are we supposed to go through a tunnel?" I nervously asked Derek. He shrugged. I took a deep breath, checked to make sure the van would meet the height requirements, turned off the radio, and edged in.

Unlike the well-lit, tiled tunnels of the U.S., this tunnel was carved out of the rock. A few reflectors were placed along the sides of the tunnel to avoid having drivers crash into the rock. Pipes lined the sides, and one had burst from the enormous rainfall. The steep tunnel continued to go down further and further, no end in sight. It was, in short, terrifying. I fully expected to find Team Competence's van floating in a flood of rainwater at the bottom of the tunnel. "It's like a tunnel to hell!" Derek commented as we inched along. Becky came to squat between the two seats in the cabin and Alex soon joined. We watched in silence as we drove further and further down the tunnel, all expecting the worst. A few times I "saw" the end, only to be dismayed when we turned the slight corner to see that there was more tunnel.

I started to lose it near the end of the tunnel and just started laughing. "At least we'll have an amazing story to tell," I giggled. Everyone else smiled nervously. Finally, we saw the end, and a cheer went up from Team Efficient. However, my joy was short lived, as the hill continued down, now with a series of hairpin turns. Thankfully, there was no one coming in the opposite direction, meaning that I could take up the whole road to safely navigate the turns.

We saw a sign for the camping site we were looking for and Team Competence in front of it, flashers blinking. We pulled up to the side, and found Ben in an even more delirious state than me. "A branch is across the road to the site," he said, shaking his head. "Let's just push towards the town and find a parking lot." We agreed and followed T.C. to the town, where, admist the flooded roads, we found a parking lot. We pulled up, threw our parking break on, and all passed out.

The next morning we woke up to gray clouds and rain falling on mountains. We had made it to the Sound, where we were going to be kayaking that afternoon. Ben knocked on our door at about 11:30. "Kayaking's off," he said matter-of-factly. "It's too cold and rainy. They told us to take a tour instead. We need to walk around the Sound to catch a boat in about a half-hour." We all got dressed and booked it over to the building where we could book a tour.

Milford Sound was gorgeous, even while raining. We got to see a bunch of waterfalls that dry up when it's sunny. We all stuck it out on the top observation deck, even though it was cold and very bouncy from the rough seas. By the end of the tour, however, the sun was coming out and we saw a few rainbows! It was gorgeous and definitely worth the pain of the Tunnel of Death (AKA Homer Tunnel).

We drove back to Te Anau to use an internet cafe, book some actvities for the next few days and dinner, then headed to Queenstown for the next two days...