Milford Sound, New Zealand

New Zealand forecaster Lewis Ferris said one meter (3 feet, 4 inches) of rain had fallen in 60 hours in Milford Sound, and 600 mm of that fell in 24 hours, “Those are numbers some of our most experienced forecasters haven’t seen before…to get that in two-and-a-half days has been quite a lot.”

We were there on day 1 of this inundation, before the devastating floods that ripped apart the skinny curvy mountain access road and stranded about 300 visitors at the Milford Sound and on the Track.  We were among the lucky ones to get out that day before the road was torn asunder.

Our reward the day after completing the 33.5 mile Milford Track (blog post forthcoming) was a ferry ride up and down Milford Sound to view the high cliff walls of the glacial valley that formed this sound, uh actually a fjord for you geologists, in the Tasman Sea.  The walls are chock full of voluminous water falls crashing to the sea.

We were really hoping for a bluebird day for taking those iconic shots of New Zealand and at first disappointed that it was a rainy, dreary, cloudy day…perhaps they would cancel the ride, but they didn’t…and boy are we glad they didn’t.   The to-be record rainfall had engorged the waterfalls and where there were no waterfalls the day before, the cliff faces were practically walls of water.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that really bad Kevin Costner movie “Water World”; this trip was proving to be epic for the waterfall photo opportunities.  Like taking a trip on some alien water planet, this experience was practically orgasmic for any waterfall junkie as we have become over the years with all of our trips including Hawaii, Alaska and Iceland, but this was the best.

As we pulled up to one of the falls our boat captain told us a story about a local myth that the mist on our face from these falls makes one look 10 years younger.   Many of the women (and some men!) rushed to go outside and get real, real wet!  There is a picture at the end, you can look at to see if it worked for Suzie and me.

We ran into many tourists after we got out who were supposed to go on the Milford Track or to the Sound and had to cancel their trips.  Bookings were cancelled until mid-March.  Stranded tourists were helicoptered out once the weather got better.  The road, well the road is still under construction two weeks later, unclear when it will open again. 

We were to learn after this how very lucky we were to get from A to B in New Zealand and have good weather for our outings.   Many times roads would be closed, towns without power, ahead and behind us, but we were fortunate to never be blocked on our day of travel.

Many more blogs forthcoming on our adventures in New Zealand: wikas (what’s that?), glow worms, blue penguins and blue ducks, glaciers, waterspouts, beautiful beaches, bizarre rock formations and more.  Will we ever see an iconic kiwi?  Read future posts to find out.

Until then enjoy these remaining waterfall images.  As usual leave your comments and feedback below.