Company Applies To Run Kayak Operation In Milford

Media Release from Milford Sound Red Boat Cruises
27 April 2009

Tourism Company Applies To Run Kayak Operation In Milford Sound

Premier New Zealand tourism company Milford Sound Red Boats Ltd has applied to the Department of Conservation and Environment Southland to conduct a kayak operation in Harrison Cove, within Piopiotahi-Milford Sound.

Red Boats has applied under the Marine Reserves Act to add a Kayak Operations Facility alongside the existing Discovery Centre and Underwater Observatory, which the company has operated for 14 years.

The new single-storey kayak facility would sit right alongside the observatory, joined by an elevated walkway and sitting on a new pontoon which would replace an existing structure.

The pontoon was previously used as the base for a small tourist and scientific research submarine which ceased operation in April 2002.

Milford Sound Red Boats General Manager John Robson said the aim was to provide a guided kayak activity in Harrison’s Cove using the kayak facility as the base for storing kayaks, storing the safety craft and embarking and disembarking kayakers.

A maximum of 15 passengers would be taken on up to four trips a day, which would include a full interactive boat trip of two hours or more, an interactive visit to the Underwater Observatory, and a one-and-a-half hour guided kayak trip in Harrison’s Cove.

“Our target market is the person who wants to have a short, gentle paddle,” he said. “Experienced kayakers and those with a relatively high degree of fitness are well catered for in Milford, but we plan to offer a slightly ‘tamer’ experience.”

Mr Robson said it would be an estimated four and a half hours duration for the complete boat, observatory and kayak ‘package’.

“The experience will be unrivalled in Piopiotahi Milford Sound in giving visitors the most complete and knowledgeable experience,” he said. “I guarantee they’ll leave as fervent exponents of the natural values of the fiord and Fiordland National Park.”

Mr Robson said the Observatory fulfilled Department of Conservation objectives to educate international and domestic visitors as to the necessity of having World Heritage Areas with extremely limited access, and the proposed kayak facility would take that one step further.

“Empathy with the overwhelming landscape and this wild and unpopulated valley will be greatly enhanced from the perspective of a small kayak at a quiet ‘water level’ experience,” he said.

“Coming as it does after a boat cruise and a visit to the Observatory, the kayak trip will be the final link in the educative experience.

“The growth of kayaking is directly related to visitors wishing to have a greater range of active experiences, as apposed to the passive cruise experience, and their desire to feel as though they are in the wilderness.

“Many international visitors, approximately 85% of Milford visitors, have never experienced such a pristine and rugged environment. The proposed activity delivers on this desire without impacting on the environment in any way.”

Mr Robson said trips would be run with a designated leader for each trip, and the group would be divided into manageable sizes. Inexperienced paddlers would be identified in the briefing and ‘buddied up’ with either the guide or an experienced paddler. He said levels of ‘average fitness’ would be required.

Guides would be in contact with each other and the base via VHF radio, and trips would not venture out into the main sound used by daily sightseeing vessels.

Mr Robson said the kayak guide would be the final link in the interpretive chain, giving accurate information on the rock formations, flora descriptions and name of peaks within the Pembroke Valley and Harrison Cove.

Harrison Cove is a naturally sheltered bay with Milford Sound that has provided shelter for vessels from early whaling and sealing days from the 1800’s to the present. The mouth of the bay faces south and is open to the fiord. The northern beach end of the bay is bisected by the Harrison River which runs down through the Pembroke Valley. The western wall is the base of Williamson Point and eastern is the Cascade range, both of which are typical of the steep walls within Milford Sound, covered by indigenous bush and scarred by tree avalanche paths.

Milford Sound Red Boats Ltd offers the most modern cruising experience in Milford Sound with a fleet of three spacious catamarans and the Encounter Cruise. It also operates Milford Deep, New Zealand’s only floating underwater observatory, and the Blue Duck Café and Bar in Milford Sound.

Picture caption: Milford Sound Underwater Observatory (left) with proposed new kayak facility superimposed (right).

ENDS

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