Milford Sound

Milford Sound is one hundred and nineteen very windy kilometres from Te Anau, and there are no settlements between them at all. The road was very quiet when we set off at 7am this morning, driving past forests and between lofty snow capped mountains. Towards the end of the journey we climbed up to the Holm tunnel and went into very thick cloud. The road twisted and turned and the visibility was dreadful, so I took it very slowly round the hairpin bends. The tunnel slopes down, and has traffic lights to allow one direction of traffic through at a time. It is unlined, so feels like driving into a downward sloping mine!

After one and a half kilometres we emerged into the sunshine and wound our way down to the boat terminal at the head of Milford Sound. There is a huge car and coach park to accommodate all the visitors, and a small but busy airport for light aircraft and helicopters flying people in from Queenstown.

Our tour boat was the Milford Adventurer, one of the smaller ones tied up at the last of the eight quays.

The Sound was originally discovered in 1805 by a Welch sea captain who had come to hunt fur seals for their skins. Captain Cook had sailed past, but didn't see the entrance which is hidden from the Tasman Sea. It was originally named Milford Haven, but in the mid nineteenth century was renamed Milford Sound, even though properly it is a fjord rather than a sound! The fur seals still live in the Sound, and sunbathe on rocks while flicking away the pesky sand flies.

It was carved out by repeated glaciations, and is now a mighty trough with towering sides clad in forest. Mitre Peak rises from the Sound to a mile high, it is truly awesome! Because it had rained last night, there were many waterfalls tumbling hundreds of feet into the Sound. The captain of our boat got very close indeed, and some people at the bow got a good soaking. 

It didn't matter too much, because we had glorious sunshine and blue skies, very lucky considering they have eight metres of rain a year! 

On our return our boat edged beneath a concavity in the cliff caused by the glaciers, so we could look upwards to see trees growing out of the cliff above us. The forested cliffs and waterfalls looked just like Pandora in Avatar, literally fantastic and one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

Sound as a pound

Rainbows in the waterfall

Mitre Peak

Snowy peaks

Time I had a shower