Milford Sound

Monday 29 May

Almost the end of May, and for a lot of tourist operators in South Island, New Zealand, almost the end of the season.

We set off early from Te Anau to the the Milford Visitor Centre, taking in a long, varied and sometimes downright scary road down steep twisting inclines, beside beautiful lakes and - memorably - through the 1.2km Homer Tunnel (D'OH!) which passes through a mountain.

Milford Sound itself is normally very wet; it receives more than 7 metres of rainfall every year. We were blessed; the day was bright and sunny as we boarded the impressive Milford Mariner

But more impressive, of course, is Milford Sound itself; a 16 kilometre fiord between sheer mountains heading out to the Tasman Sea.

We had just made this trip in time; the Milford Mariner would make it's final cruises for the year tomorrow, May 30th, and the crew made no secret of the fact that they couldn't wait to go to the pub to celebrate this!

And so we slowly made our way through this magical, majestic sunlit landscape, passing by (and later, beneath) high waterfalls

and tree shrouded cliffs

as we headed out to sea. Interestingly, there is very little to anchor the trees to the cliffs with roots clinging to shallow crevices in the rocks. During heavy rainfall trees can be dislodged causing a 'domino effect' among neighbouring trees and resulting in a potentially dangerous tree avalanche. Just as well it was sunny, really.

Once arriving at the mouth of the Sound, the boat made a leisurely turn heading for the mountains on the port (left) side. Here, in places, we were able to cruise closer to the rocks in order to get a good view of basking seals

and to pass under spectacular rock outcroppings hanging high above.

Justifiably pleased with the sunny weather, everyone stood on the observation deck of the boat as the Captain kindly steered it right under the 155 metre high Stirling Falls! The water was freezing, but very invigorating - so much for staying dry though...

Before we knew it our wonderful cruise along Milford Sound was almost over, but it presented another highlight of our South Island tour and made us keen to return and do the trip again in a future summer.

We took a slow drive back along the valley floor then up through the mountains to Te Anau, where we would spend one more night before moving on again.

Sunset on Lake Te Anau