Milford Sound

Luckily I have friends who told us Milford Sound was the most beautiful place they had seen.  So we make the long trek from Queenstown to check it out.  They're right - it's so majestic.  It should be up there with the Grand Canyon and Everest as one of the wonders of the world.  So lots of pictures again.  (BTW, it's actually a fjord, not a sound...but I'll let you look up the difference between the two!)

That's a glacier on top of the mountain!

I put in this picture to try to give you a little bit of scale.  That's actually quite a large boat out on the water.  The mountains are as high as 5500 ft (over a mile high!) but because there's nothing around to put it in perspective, they only seem about a tenth of that.  For Steve, it's seeing a helicopter fly by - it's near the top of the mountain, and looks to be about the size of a fly.  Just amazing! 

We're lucky during our overnight trip - most of the rain occurs while we are sleeping.  Milford Sound is one of the rainiest places on Earth.  They tell us it receives more rain than the Amazon rainforest.

All those white "lines" in the mountains are actually waterfalls.

We have the sun peak out a little bit, so my camera is able to pick up a little of the true colors of the mountains.  You would think from the near vertical sides that they are solid rock, but they aren't - lots of greenery is growing.






And of course, there are hundreds of waterfalls, too...with the obligatory selfies taken with them.

Practicing my photo skills again - trying to capture the power of the waterfall.

Apparently Milford Sound has their own penguins, and this is their favorite beach, but they had already headed out so we missed them by a couple of weeks.  They said there are sometimes some stragglers, so we keep looking, but it looks like they've closed up the summer home.

There are no penguins in this picture.

This is why the mountains are so green - the trees literally grow on top of the rock.  A layer of moss will develop, and from there other plant life, and eventually trees.  There's no soil.












The boat travels quite quickly, and even Steve's hair is blowing in the wind.  The water is pretty calm though, so no worries about seasickness (though apparently there was a bad trip a couple of weeks ago).

Hey look - is that another waterfall?

Home, sweet home!  For one night, anyway.

We have a delicious buffet dinner, and have a wonderful time talking with our table mates. (A German couple and a Kiwi/Aussie couple - we were all around the same age - how did they know to seat us together??  The seats were assigned before we arrived.)  Then we head to our comfy cabin.  It's actually a little bigger than I thought it would be.  We have some noisy neighbors though...ask us and we'll tell you about it!   I don't think it's suitable for printing. : )  

The next morning we leave our cove and head out to the end of Milford Sound, to sail in the Tasman Sea.  The length of the Sound is a lot less than we thought - it takes us barely 15 minutes to reach the sea.

Beautiful sunrise!

Here are a couple more pictures where I'm trying to capture the magnificence of the mountains.  Again, a good size boat, and I'm not even close to fitting the entire mountain in the picture.  From now on when I see/read The Princess Bride I will think of these mountains as the model for the "Cliffs of Insanity."






Then there are three seals lying on the striped rock below.  I purposely didn't zoom in on them.

Wait - I'm not just trying to show another waterfall, am I?

Not only is Milford Sound incredibly beautiful, but it's also one of the most unique places in the world.  The rainwater creates a layer six to thirty feet deep on top of the salt water.  The fresh water is "dyed" by tannins from the plant life, causing the salt water to be very dark and cold.  This allows animals and plants that are normally hundreds of feet below the surface to be quite close to the top.  We stop by the Milford Discovery Centre, located in Harrison's Cove, in order to check out the underwater environment.  We're the only ones from our boat to elect to do this, and the day trippers haven't made it out yet, so we get a private tour.  Lucky!

The highlight of the Discovery Centre is the Underwater Observatory.  The display to the right shows the thickness of the windows.  I believe they are a type of plexiglas, not true glass (it could not withstand the pressure).

We descend the thirty feet down into the Observatory.  I should have taken a picture of the "room."  It's like entering a sci-fi movie.  I kind of worried HAL was going to take over the controls.  But through the viewpoints we are able to see lots of fish and plants in the "garden."  

When our guide joins us a few minutes later, she's excited to see all the fish by the windows.  Usually that means something large and/or predatory has disturbed them, and they are seeking shelter.  We keep gazing out the windows, hoping to spot a shark or dolphin (both had been seen recently), but like with the penguins, nothing.

Black coral - the name comes from its black skeleton.

There are no sharks in this picture.

We head back to the Visitor's Center in our (private) water taxi, and I can't resist one last waterfall picture.  Turns out this one is taller than our 46-story apartment building!  It also provides the power for the Visitor Center and surrounding area.

(Maybe) my last waterfall picture...

On our drive back to Queenstown we make a couple of stops.  After a few minutes' walk we visit The Chasm, where the Cleddau River has created a pothole effect in the stones as it runs through the rocks down to a gorge.  I believe this is about fifty feet deep (in the picture).

I don't think this hose is safe...

Then in the parking lot we get some New Zealand wildlife.  Kea - New Zealand parrots!  We had been warned about them.  They love to explore and manipulate items (and will work together to accomplish a goal).  They especially like to investigate man-made items - and if you leave anything strapped to the roof of your car, it will be destroyed by the birds in minutes.  





We also have to take our picture at the 45 Degree Latitude!  The only places it crosses land are in New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.  
 







I find another great sign, too (but the seal sign still holds the #1 spot).  It's not unusual to see this when you're driving in New Zealand.

Okay, one more waterfall picture - we didn't see these on the drive down; it must have been the rain last night that caused them to form!

How many waterfalls do you see?

And here's what the road back to Queenstown looks like.  This was a nice mini-vacation from our vacation!

When are we in cell service again??