Milford Sound

 Today we were up before dawn, driving two hours north along the west edge of the fiordland mountains to Milford. We were the first ship out on Milford Sound; the day was clear, the water was calm, and without other boats it was quiet. Our ship can hold over 100 passengers but our little group had it all to ourselves — it was wonderful, we could freely wander about the ship and have no fear of being photo bombed.

Although it was named Milford Sound in the 19th century, it is really a fjord. A sound is a river that has been inundated by the sea. A fjord is carved out by glaciers, which affects both its shale (deep, steep and with a rounded bottom) and its makeup (the entrance from the ocean shallower than the rest from debris deposited as the glacier receded).  The surface of the water was very blue.  This is because the salt water sits on top of the fresh water which is rich in tannins.

The sheer magnitude of the mountains was hard to grasp, and we found ourselves taking lots of pictures with other vessels (once they appeared) or small planes or some other object in it for scale. In addition to the majesty of the mountains and waterfalls (some of which are three times the height of Niagara Falls, though they look small compared to the height of the fjord walls), we also saw fur seals (including a baby) and seabirds. As we entered the Tasman Sea, a pair of Bottlenosed Dolphins played around the ship, which was an unusual and wonderful treat.  We also saw two people climbing up one of the cliff faces en route to Mt. Mitre. They must have been dropped off by a ship, as they were not very far above the water when we saw them, and there was nothing around them but rocks and water.

The rest of the day was spent retracing our steps to Te Anau and then heading east and north into Central Otago and Lake Wanaka. We stopped in a number of small towns along the way, many of which were founded during the 1860’s gold rush. Some of the towns have well preserved buildings from that era. One of the shops had a collection of gold nuggets found recently in the area,  including the largest at 7.5 oz.  We got to hold it for a moment; it is quite a chunk of metal.  Our hotel for the night is on the shore of Lake Wanaka which afforded a chance for birdwatching and a lovely sunset over the water. 

Pictured: Milford Sound and waterfall, dolphin breaching, baby fur seal