embracing aotearoa

Milford Sounds Day Trip

Milford Sounds was described as the 8th wonder of the world by Sir Ernest Kipling. A must see place in the Fiordlands. And it was not difficult to see why.It was a 12 hour coach ride from Queenstown where we traveled via Te Anau. Just to give you a rough idea of how long the journey was, it was a whopping 550km one way ride. Though by that time we were sick of coach rides, the journey from Te Anau onwards was such a spectacular one. The young coach driver/ commentor gave an in depth commentary of the area and I must say that I've learned so much from that trip.

The last time I visited Milford Sounds was when I was 7 and I could still remember the long and arduous trip there as well as the birch trees that grew at that altitude. Homers tunnel was enchanting.Not forgetting those cheeky Keas (native alpine parrots) that we saw up in the mountains. In the pictures, you would notice some kind of mossy-like substance growing on the birch trees. That's because of the high humidity levels up in the Fiord mountains. The Fiordlands have an annual rainfall of almost 182 days a year which explains the high humidty levels that is experienced in that area. We were there on a rainy day and a spectacle awaited us as we travelled along the sounds! There were many rain-fed waterfalls cascading down the sea-risen mountains apart from the 3 permanent glacier fed waterfalls usually seen in the sounds. We also saw walruses and a bottlenose dolphin. We didn't take pictures in the sounds though because the camera was left on the coach but do not fret! I took videos of our cruise along the Sounds.