Milford Sound, but it's actually a fjord!

Today was a long day. We spent a lot of it in the bus, but we had a large distance to cover. Leaving Queenstown we headed to Te Anau for a quick coffee stop before heading to the Fjordland National Park. Once described by Rudyard Kipling as the 8th wonder of the world, Milford Sound is an inslet of 15km that meets the Tasman Sea. Some stupid person named it a Sound when it is strictly a Fjord!

Again on the way there were endless views and vistas that were just awesome.

We did meet some really comical keas. They look like parrots and were hanging around viewpoints. Whilst the tourists were distracted taking photos they would be on the car roofs striping the rubber mouldings out or trying to detach their aerials!

 

To get to the Milford Sound you drive along the Remarkables mountain range. There are 30metre trees growing on sheer rock faces. The evidence of tree avalanches is all over, although the avalanche we witnessed was an ordinary snow one.

At one point we pulled over Eglinton Valley and topped up our water bottles from the stream. There are no animals this high up and the water was pure glacial melt. Fresh and already chilled!

We had to go through a tunnel to get to Milford Sound, and it was quite a steep descent on the other side. The brakes on the bus smelt of burning by the end!

We boarded a boat which then took us along the Milford Sound. The scenery was vast and quite difficult to photograph as there were no reference points to provide a sense of scale. The mountains disappeared into the clouds and there were waterfalls everywhere. 

At one point the boat went so close to one of the waterfalls all of those with the front row positions got soaked! I could see what was going to happen so was already hiding inside. Unfortunately not everyone was as smart as me, and oh how I laughed at their misfortune (and their sogginess)!! He he!

We did so spot a wild penguin! My first one. I was so excited I practically sent 3 Chinese ladies flying so that I could get the best vantage point. Well there are too many Chinese people anyway, so they wouldn't miss a few! 

I must admit (and feel awful for doing so) but after so many amazing views I was a bit numbed to the charms of Milford. It certainly looks like a place from the "Land of the Lost Worlds", and I am sure that it has not changed since Captain Cook first saw it, but there comes a point when you have seen so much extraordinary that it becomes ordinary. 

Tomorrow we head to Dunedin. It's apparently known as the "Edinburgh of the South" so I am expecting bagpipes and haggis..... Let's see what happens!