South Island Trip - Day 8 - day trip to Milford Sound

The day of our Milford Sound trip dawned cloudy with only a few tiny chinks of blue, and it was difficult to judge which way the weather would go.

The two-hour drive from the town of Te Anau, where we were staying, to Milford Sound was one of the most scenic sections of the entire trip. First of all the road skirts the shores of Lake Te Anau – the largest lake in South Island - and then it enters the Fiordland National Park – the largest National Park in New Zealand. Fiordland is a fascinating vista of jagged mountain peaks, beech forest clinging to near-vertical cliff faces, and countless waterfalls, some of which are many hundreds of metres tall.

a view of Milford Sound from the shore

By the time we reached Milford Sound the cloud had cleared completely. The staff at the visitor centre said we were very lucky with the weather, as blue sky days are pretty rare. On average it rains heavily two days out of three, and most of the days when it doesn't rain, it's overcast. Milford Sound is one of the wettest spots in New Zealand, with an average of between 6 and 7 METRES of rain per year.

a couple of Milford Sound's many waterfalls
After rain, the volume of water increases enormously.

We took a boat trip around the sound, lasting 1 ¾ hours. When we got back we wanted to stay on the boat and do it again! There are overnight cruises available, which would be a wonderful thing to do if you had a little more time and money.

Harrison Cove

Milford Sound is absolutely stunning. We sailed beneath a cliff that's twice the height of the Empire State Building, and a waterfall that's three times the height of Niagara Falls, but the scale was far too big to be able to judge it without the help of our friendly cruise captain.

some tourist

Milford Sound does suffer a bit from being a 'honeypot' site. As the most accessible of Fiordland's many fiords, (being the only one with road access), it's by far the most visited, and there's a constant procession of cruise ships leaving every few minutes. There must have been at least ten of them on the water at the same time as us. But by far the most intrusive visitors are the dozens of light aircraft and helicopters, whose engines buzz loudly as they swing in low over the cliffs. However, all this hustle and bustle means that the other fiords remain relatively wild and untouched, and even the constant whining of the aircraft engines couldn't spoil the experience for us.

a group of fur seals taking a siesta

I know I'm fond of saying this, but you really must believe me this time when I say that our photos in no way do the place justice. The visit to Milford Sound was definitely the highlight of our South Island trip.

Helen