Everyone who has been to New Zealand told me that I absolutely MUST visit Milford Sound. To be completely honest, my reaction before the trip was “…meh”.

In the end, Jan decided that we probably should see what all the fuss was about, so she booked a tour and boat ride. I tracked the ride on my smart watch, and if you look at the path of the boat ride, it really does look …meh.

Boy, was I mistaken. This simple map of the route completely fails to give you a sense of what is in store. Thank you Jan for booking the tour.

It’s possible to drive your car to Milford Sound, but we decided to take the bus tour because 1) no need for one of us to drive the very narrow winding roads, 2) no problem finding parking, and 3) we could both enjoy the scenery on the bus ride. And oh boy, is the scenery amazing. You are overwhelmed even before you get to the main attraction.

The driver provided interesting commentary about the scenery, the geography, the vegetation, and the people who built the road. He did all of this while navigating the narrow, winding roads driving a 14 meter long bus. He explained how trees manage to grow on the very steep mountain sides. It is a two-hundred-year process that begins with blue-green algae, then lichen, then moss, and finally beech trees. The trees anchor themselves to the hillside, but not that effectively, so on a regular basis there are “tree slides” where all the trees slide down the mountainside, leaving bare rock so the the process can start all over again. You can see the slides everywhere. Here is one example. Note that the three slides are in different stages of regrowth.

Another interesting things he pointed out was the “hanging valleys” that were created by the glaciers during the last ice age. Basically, the weight of the ice in the main valley pushed out the sides, creating a U-shaped indentation well above the main valley floor. Here is a picture of one.

When we were on the boat ride, we saw more examples of hanging valleys, with lakes in the valley and waterfalls into Milford Sound.

I started this post by saying we weren’t convinced that a trip to Milford Sound would be worthwhile. We were so very wrong. It is awe inspiring. We started taking pictures and eventually stopped (mostly) because we knew pictures could never capture the experience. We tried to just soak it all in, and mostly succeeded. We did take a few pictures, and I’ll offer a few here to give you an idea of what it looks like.

These pictures are a poor imitation of the live experience, but they are all that I can offer. If you are in New Zealand, go see for yourself.

One other side note. It rains in Milford Sound about 240 days of the year. We were treated to a beautiful sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky. It almost qualified as a drought for this area. We aren’t complaining.

I relaxed on the drive back to Te Anau, grateful yet again that I didn’t have to drive. Two hours in the sun on the water was wonderful, but exhausting. After freshening up and having a drink in our room, we had dinner at one of the many tasty, and very busy, restaurants in Te Anau. Then it was back to our hotel for a relaxing evening writing this blog and watching the sun set behind the hills.