Milford Sound

After the Kepler Track, I hopped on the Stray bus to do the Milford Sound trip. It was absolutely pouring in the morning when we got picked up. The bus drive up to Milford Sound was not very scenic for us because it was raining so hard. Driving up to the tunnel that takes you through the mountains overlooking Milford Sound, we saw amazing waterfalls. They were all over the place. These waterfalls are only around during and right after the rains in Milford Sound because the mountains are so steep that the water falls immediately to the sea. It does not have to work it's way through trees and rivers. Very cool waterfalls.

The boat trip out through Milford Sound was the same through the beginning of the cruise. Lots of amazing waterfalls, but we could not see the entirety of the Sound since there was so much rain. One of the cool things that I saw is in a picture below. Waterfalls that run off a legde and immediately evaporate into the air. It appears that the water runs downhill to the ledge and then "runs" uphill. I was in awe. Very cool.

The Milford Sound cruise also boats out to the Tasman Sea and then works it's way back to the dock, just as the Doubtful Sound cruise. About half way back to the dock the weather cleared and we had beautiful views of Milford Sound. Steep rock walls with very little vegetation. Pretty amazing. It was nice to have the waterfalls and also to be able to see the Sound when the weather cleared up later in the trip.

On the drive back down to Te Anau, the weather was nice and we had great views of the valley and the nearby mountains. I had heard that the drive to Milford Sound was really good and it was nice to have those views on the way back down the mountain. The fjordlands are very scenic and I am glad that I had the time to spend several days exploring the area.

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