Milford Sound

We awoke the next day to some clouds in Te Anau and headed off down the road to Milford Sound. The driving down was hauntingly beautiful, like a scene from Lord of the Rings. Mountains rising steeply, great black behemoths slick with rain, mist, clouds and thundering waterfalls. The word “awesome” overused by the current adolescent generation as ours used (and still use)“cool” is the perfect adjective to describe these mountains here. The mist turned to rain by the time we reached our destination, after passing through the impressive 1.3 km. Homer Tunnel blasted through solid rock. We had enough time for flat whites before hiking in the rain to our boat. All our trips were booked with Real Journeys – a great NZ company. We had met a couple at the Fox Glacier B & B who had hiked the track and informed us that it’s not bad to have the rain at Milford because that’s the way to see all the waterfalls. There are actually only 4 permanent waterfalls in the fiord, all the rest appear during the rainstorms. Apparently it rains 220 days a year on average, so we saw an “average” day. The rain came down in sheets and the “temporary” waterfalls streamed. It was actually very exhilarating standing on the back deck of the boat breathing the fresh sea air. Duncan had taken Sea Legs again so I’m not sure if he was totally compos mentis but I was dancing around trying to keep my balance, avoid falling overboard and get the best shots. I’ll post one of the short films of a waterfall to give you the idea!