Milford Sound

Milford Sound must be the number one talked about spot in New Zealand. Even before we arrived in the country we'd been told this was a "must-see" place and we'd seen posters advertising it as far north as Auckland. So it's very surprising that, despite all this hype, Milford Sound is still one of the most impressive places I've ever been.



The drive down to Milford takes you past enormous snowy mountains, through an unnervingly narrow rock tunnel and past huge piles of snow marked with "Do not stop: avalanche zone" signs! I had to congratulate Rob for getting us and the camper van safely through that experience.



There was no way we were driving all that way and not get out onto the water so, braving the foul weather (Fiordland National Park gets an average of 7 metres of rain per year so it wasn't surprising we got wet!), we took a cruise on the sound.



We were very fortunate because, almost as soon as we stepped onto the boat, the cloud began to lift, the rain eased and the sheer cliffs and hanging valleys emerged from the mist. For the first time that day, the very tip of Mitre Peak revealed itself. At 1692 metres above sea level, it is one of the tallest mountains in the world to rise directly out of the sea, and is an amazing sight.



Because there had been so much rain that day, the rocks were running with hundreds of temporary waterfalls, that would be gone in just a matter of hours. The permanent ones, like this one, were all the more impressive, too, because of the extra water. In a strange way, we were glad to have the rain and the mist gave the whole place a wonderful atmosphere.




We were also really pleased that we had taken the last cruise of the day because, instead of hundreds of visitors off the tour buses, there were only 6 other people on the boat and they mostly stayed downstairs in the rain. A boat to ourselves in the middle of Milford Sound? It doesn't get much better than that.

Rachel x