Milford Sound

One of the places mom really wanted to visit while in the south island was Milford Sound.  In researching this, it was a bit difficult to come up with the best way to get to it and how to go about our time there.  We finally decided that it was too long of a journey for our family to make a day trip of it and not feel rushed.  So we drove 2 hours to spend the night in Te Anau, the closest city to Milford Sound (this was actually in the middle of our time at Queenstown which will be a separate post).Then we woke up early Friday morning and headed on a beautifully scenic 2 hour drive to Milford Sound. The sun was just making it's presence and there was fog rising from the water in the valleys of the mountains.  We wished we'd had more time to stop along the way for photos and to take it all in.

Sun rising over the valley

A quick shot out the window while we drove!

We had pre-booked the only tour that would allow us to do a small boat cruise and kayak with the kids.  When we arrived, they informed us that the kids were not of age and we wouldn't be able to do the kayaking portion of the tour because we lacked one adult.  Amazingly, there was a kind lady from California who overheard our disappointment and offered to take one of the kids in her kayak so that we could potentially do the complete tour as planned - but we would not know for sure if this would work until cruising to the kayak destination and discussing it with the site manager, so it was a gamble on our part. Our new friend and her travel companion had already booked single kayaks on the same tour, which made the shift easy for the tour company but meant she had to endure one of our children :).

Milford Sound

Cruising around

Dad taking it all in

On our boat tour we learned that although it is called Milford Sound, it truly is a fjord.  A sound is a large sea or ocean inlet, flooded by water when it rises or the land is depressed; while a fjord is the steep-sided and narrow valley left by a glacier that has been flooded by the sea after the glacier has moved on, and it is narrower than a sound.  After being named Milford Sound, the difference was realized and so they've named the national park area surrounding it Fiordland National Park.  The area is a rainforest and receives 7-9 meters of rain a year! However, we visited on a beautiful sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky. We also learned that it had not rained there in 6 days, which they called a drought. While we were told it was stunning to see it in the rain, we agreed that with the kids and the cooler spring temperatures, we were blessed to have a sunny day to enjoy it comfortably.

Our cruise took us close to waterfalls and into the Tasman Sea, we saw New Zealand Fur Seals, and Fiordland Crested Penguins (the second rarest penguin in the world).

First glimpse of a waterfall

Waterfall with mountains in background

New Zealand Fur Seal sunning himself

Boat in the waterfall

Dad & SJ getting wet

Fiordland Crested Penguins

The cliffs had a multitude of colors, including green which is copper

View off to the right is the Tasman Sea

As part of the cruise, we visited an underwater observatory and were able to observe unique sea-life because of "Deep Water Emergence." Due of the vast amount of rainfall and the steep sides of the mountains jutting up out of the sea, there is no soil.  So when it rains, the fresh water runs down the cliffs and pulls the tannins into the water with them, causing there to be up to 10 meters of fresh water above the salt water.  The fresh water is a brown color due to the tannins collected, and this color acts like sunglasses to filter out the sunlight.  So the sea-life that occurs typically in very deep conditions, happens here in much shallower depths - the only such place in the world.  The most unique example of this emergence is the presence of black coral, which can grow at a depth as shallow as 5 meters here as opposed to 30 meters typically.

Kids in front of Black Coral (which is actually white!)

Upon chatting with the kayak manager, we gained approval to kayak and got suited up and set off.  It was truly beautiful.  We paddled into a shallow area and were able to drink refreshing glacier water right out of our hand!  We then headed across the water to an area and saw several of the rare Fiordland Crested Penguins.  We made our way back, only to learn that we were the last group to do the whole kayaking trip as the wind had become to strong and they'd called the following groups back in.  We were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to kayak and for our new friends from CA who made it possible for our family to take part in this adventure.  Mom was especially thrilled as kayaking was the unique aspect of this trip that had appealed to her.

Heading out on the kayak

Drinking from the glacier water

Our kayaking group

We had thought about driving to a new area of the South Island, but this is where not planning ahead has it's downside, as we couldn't find any accommodations.  We learned that our place in Queenstown was available over the weekend, and as we basically had to drive back through Queenstown to get anywhere else, we decided to stay there a few more nights.  This actually worked out really well as it felt a bit like 'home' returning to the same place and having some familiarity, plus it kept us from feeling too rushed.  On our return to Queenstown we stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and this once in a lifetime stop at Milford Sound.

G overlooking the mountains