Sunshine at Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand

*WS 113 - Sunshine at Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand*

Milford Sound is a fiord in the south west of the South Island in New Zealand, within the Fiordland National Park. It is named after a similar landscape in Wales called Milford Haven. In geography, a fiord is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, formed by a process of glaciation. The Milford South runs 15 km from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by rock faces rising 1,200 m or more on either side.

It is a top tourist attraction in New Zealand, despite it being located in a more “remote” area far from population centers. The nearest town, Te Anau is 120 km away. Tourists normally make a day trip here and see the fiord landscape on a boat cruise for up to 2 hours. We were here in 2013 and did exactly that. 

The annual rainfall at Milford Sound is 6,400 mm making it one of the wettest places on earth. It rains like every alternate day throughout the year. We were very lucky as it was gorgeous sunshine during our cruise. The water is ink-dark because it is deep, up to 400 m. The most visible wildlife are the fur seals (5th photo). There are 2 permanent waterfalls, one of them the Bowen Falls (6th photo) at 161 m height. There are many more semi-permanent falls, like this Fairy Falls (7th photo) at 285 m high. The last photo was taken at the car park. We were on a small group self-drive.