Milford Sound

The Milford Sound (which is actually a fiord because it was carved by glaciers) is a place of great beauty. The Milford Track is world famous and is said to be one the most beautiful. We had been interested in making the five day, 53 km journey, but they only allow a certain number of people to walk it at a time and it was booked (we looked into it back in Napier). I think it would have been one of things that would have been very hard but very rewarding. You are almost guaranteed that it will rain some of the time (and hopefully not the whole time) that you make this journey. It rains 6-7 meters per year in this area. The rain makes it difficult for walking but it produces some unreal waterfalls. The track ends at the Milford Sound which we were able to drive to. We were surprised that the entire 119 km was sealed, but then we realized the tourist pull. Many tour buses make the trip up there. With our limited time, we decided that a good way to see this area was to drive there take a cruise through the fiord.

The drive itself was amazing. It was raining off and on and when we got closer to the end of the road, water was falling off the mountains like crazy. We could see dozens of waterfalls at once. It is kind of indescribable. We were in awe of it all and decided to pull over to take a picture. Before I could get out of the car, another car smashed into us. It hit the the front passenger door which was right outside where I was sitting. Thankfully we were all still in the car and wearing our seat belts. If it had been a few seconds later, I would have been out of the car and would not have had enough warning to get out of the way. It is amazing how getting in a accident can make you feel really lucky. We were all okay and amazingly, we were even able to drive our car! The man that hit us was driving a rental car and he was able to drive away as well. Our car's door is really dented and I can't roll my window down anymore, but somehow the hinge is still keeping the door on. We continued our journey to Milford but I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted to because we were pretty reluctant to pull over after that.

As we got closer to Milford, the rain became more intense and so did the waterfalls. I just could not have imagined such a place. We went on our cruise as planned (feeling a little lucky and shook up). The area was just gorgeous and I'm pretty sure it is one of the most beautiful natural places in the world. Unfortunately, fog and rain shielded us from seeing a lot of what was out there and many times we could just see the outlines of the great mountains. But, you can't argue with nature and part of why it is so beautiful is because it rains so much.

After a long day, I dreamed that I was flying over the Milford Sound and I could see all of its beauty clearly. I slept so good dreaming this all night. I hope to go back to Milford some day. Hopefully I will be ready and able to walk the track and then hang out at the sound as long as I have to to see it clearly.

The road up there:



Mirror Lakes:


Then it started to really rain...