Milford Sound

The Milford Sound is in the South West of New Zealand, in one of its more remote parts, yet it is one of its most popular tourist destinations. As we knew there would be a lot of people come midday we got up early and drove the two hour Milford Road to get an early morning boat cruise. The Sound is stunning. It is surrounded by sheer granite rock faces which can reach up to 1200m high. Rainforest cling to these cliffs and due to the high rainfall ( it is one of the wettest places in the world,with over 200 days of rain a year) there is no top soil, so often and with no warning there will be a tree avalanche. We were lucky with the weather and had a dry sunny day, which allowed us to see the height of the cliffs around us. In addition to this luck, we saw not only seals and bottle nosed dolphins but also one penguin-the rare yellow eyed fiordland penguin. Milford Sound is named after Milford Haven in Wales, and the Cleddau River which flows into it is similarly named for its Welsh namesake. It is accurately called a fiord(or fjord). A Sound is caused by river flow and fiord is caused by glaciar movement. On discovering it, James Cook thought it was a 'Sound' and although this name has remained, the area it is in is called Fiordland.


One of the most beautiful places so far on our trip...




Falls at the Sound


Reflection of a granite cliff


The Mitre Peak.