Fiordland

Fiordland National Park is an incredible mix of geology, landscape, flora and fauna. The area is dominated by 14 fiords and five major lakes – all the work of Ice Age glaciers. At 8,100 square miles, it dominates the Southwestern corner of New Zealand’s South Island.

Milford Sound is to New Zealand what the Great Barrier Reef is to Australia. Except Milford Sound is a two-hour drive down a narrow, winding (and usually wet) road from my home base and nearest town – Te Anau. I thought Te Anau would be a small frontier town. But it has more in common with Truckee or Jackson Hole than what I imagined.

I got an early start to Milford Sound to avoid the inevitable bus traffic and was rewarded with an empty road. I ate my packed breakfast watching the sun rise over Mirror Lakes. The only sounds were ducks making waves in my mirrors.

The drive started out clear with a great bounty of stars in the sky. By the time the sun came up it was getting cloudy. And by the time I reached Milford Sound (it should really be called Milford Fiord) there was drizzle and rain. But in Milford Sound, rain is good for sight-seeing.

I caught the 9 AM boat - the first one out – and, luck of the draw, there were only about thirty guests on board. We easily made our way to the stern when the wind and rain picked up and the top deck when it subsided. There were booths and tables inside, but no one used them. Our boat captain told us to get outside and get outside we did. The die-hard early-birds were there to experience.

Our reward was a bounty of waterfalls. Bowen and Sterling Falls are both about five hundred feet tall. And there’s another two dozen or so named falls that run all the time. But when it rains two dozen waterfalls become two thousand. Rivers of water were coming down everywhere – from hundreds of feet and from everywhere.

And, speaking of hundreds, I took hundreds of pictures. Thankfully, they’re all digital and few will be printed. It would cost a small fortune to print all those photos. I’ll keep them on my baby laptop, with backups on my big laptop and I’ll share any and all of them because once you get a taste of New Zealand you’ll want another.

As we pulled back up to the dock, there were hoards of people photographing us (photographing everything actually). The buses were arriving … time to go.