Following hearings in Te Anau last week, hearing chairman Paul Green and assistant Chris Visser opened the submissions in the resort yesterday.
"My heart hurts, my whole being is wrung, when I consider machinery boring a hole through those magnificent mountains," Sharon Aitken said.
"They deserve better than such violent rape and pillage.
"Tourists will not want to come to see what is left - desecration, desolation, concrete, car parks and more people.
"I have this feeling that I am going to have to pin myself to the proposed portal entry to try to prevent such a violation.
"I know I can't stop it if the moneybags say it's to go ahead, but they will literally do it over my dead body.
"In the meantime, I will continue to drive my mother's car, wearing the Department of Contradiction bumper sticker, and to protest at every opportunity against the Kate Wilkinson tunnel."
Ms Aitken's father's ashes were scattered in the mountains and her family had lived in the area for six generations.
She asked the panel if Milford Dart Ltd intended to consult "anyone of European extract" on the cultural impact of the project, as it planned to with runanga.
"Are European cultural sensitivities being considered alongside those of our Ngai Tahu neighbours?
"I hereby most vehemently register my disapprobation of the desecration of my heart, which is in these mountains - literally and figuratively."
Ms Aitken's mother, Mary Aitken (92), also of Glenorchy, said in her submission she would "dearly love to have my confidence in the Department of Conservation restored to its former high glory".
"It breaks my heart to think that gangs of tunnellers might be allowed to trample rough-shod through the tender habitat of ... rare species, when my late husband and others like him went to huge lengths in their endeavours to protect them and educate the general populace about them.
"Doc field workers in the district have put in huge efforts to protect and grow populations of these threatened species, yet apparently it is possible for others to undo all that hard work with the stroke of a pen that appears to be being pushed by dollar signs."
Fellow Glenorchy resident Leslie Van Gelder said the construction of the tunnel would violate relationships which had been built on trust.
"We violate covenants in this. And we violate 'something more' to which most of us don't have a word or can't put our finger on exactly, but when the violation has taken place, I imagine the sense of shame will linger for a long, long time to come.
"And in a way it should. Because we will have done something terribly wrong."
Ms Van Gelder said she had read all 1260 submissions on the proposal and after a while it felt she was reading "love letters", which spoke of the preservation of something "unspoiled, beautiful and rare".
"What I didn't see in that same batch of submissions were letters passionately in favour.
"I saw not a single letter from an overseas tourist passionately asking for a faster route to Milford, especially one that would take them through a tunnel under the national park."
Ruth-Ann Anderson, a horse-trekking guide in Glenorchy, said effects from Christchurch's earthquakes were evident and the Pike River disaster had "stunned the nation".
"We do not need another natural disaster relating to geology.
"Doc could be ruined if there was a tunnel disaster." Ms Anderson said it was "astounding" the application could reach this stage without geotechnical information, which was "inadequate".
The majority of submitters yesterday also expressed concern about what would happen to the area's Unesco World Heritage Status, which could be revoked if the tunnel were to proceed.
The hearing continues today.
The Department of Conservation received about 250 submissions on Riverside Holdings' proposed Fiordland Link Experience monorail by yesterday's public submission deadline, but more were expected, as submissions posted as late as yesterday would still be accepted.
If approved, the $150 million monorail would run 43km from the Mavora River to the Milford Rd at Te Anau, halving the 10-hour trip from Queenstown to Te Anau and making it the longest monorail in the world.
