Milford Sound, NZ

The Fiordland coast of New Zealand is one of the wettest parts of the world. The air comes in over the Tasman Sea and rises when it hits the steep mountains where it condenses and turns into rain. Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound each average over six meters of rain per year. That's over five times as much rain as Boston gets and we are not a particularly dry city. As much as ten inches of rain can fall in a single day. It rains roughly half the days so we figured that between two days on Doubtful and one on Milford we would be able to get some chance to see a fiord in clear weather. 

Having gotten our clear day on Doubtful we felt open to seeing Milford in any kind of weather.

One advantage of seeing the area in the rain is the waterfalls come out. There are only two permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound but when it rains dozens more appear within hours.

The mountains along the fiord are made of granite and show very little erosion despite all the water.   Glaciers carved their rugged shapes but the flow of water has yet to wear them down. What the water does do is take away all the topsoil. The rugged vegetation hangs on a whole network of moss but the sides are littered with stretches of bare rock where "tree avalanches" have occurred taking down all the vegetation in their path.

The rainwater picks up tannins from the trees leaving it a dark tea color. This water accumulates on top of the sea water and reduces the light below in much the way sunglasses do. This makes for an unusual marine environment where deep water corals and fish can be seen at much shallower depths. This adds to the ecological significance of the area. 

The waterfalls crash down from spectacular heights. Our boat took us close up to the base of some where the daring could get quite wet.

Brian and I took turns at the top of the boat heading out in each break in the weather or bundling up and bringing our waterproof camera.

Our girls spent a lot of time inside. Unfortunately they both got car sick on the two hour drive in to the fiord so they weren't nearly as chipper as on the last trip. 

They perked up when we came across more fur seals. This time we got to see them out swimming. 

They were also delighted to see four separate rainbows.

Just as we disembarked the blue sky broke through. 

On the way home we relaxed a little more on the drive. With some food and medicine in their bellies the girls did better, and without the deadline of meeting the boat Brian and I were able to look around and pull off at a variety of different points.

We encountered this curious kea in one parking lot. This green native parrot is known for being sneaky and smart. I'm glad we got to see it up close but we did not feed it.

We passed beautiful aquamarine pools.

We also admired the distinctive green tinge of the local rock. 

We stopped off at some amazing roadside campgrounds. I can see how traveling around the country that way could be a lot of fun. It would be amazing to see some of these views at sunset and sunrise. Still, I'm glad we minimized our overall driving for the sake of the kids.