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Milford Sound, New Zealand

Milford Sound: A good example of the spectacular walls of water streaming off of the cliff faces.

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.”

View of the ferry port and falls from our hotel at Milford Sound. The local Bowen falls, which has a hydroelectric generator to power the small town, was busting at the seams with water, jetting off the rocks above making a fine cloud. The locals joked at “how bright the lights were” because the generator was running so well. I am told the ferry boarding area was knee deep in water a day later.

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.

You can see another ferry making its way back up the Sound behind us. A day later these ferries would serve as living spaces for the stranded tourists as there are very few hotel rooms in town.

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.

The sheer volume of water coming off this fall has created its own cloud. Did you know Milford Sound gets more annual rainfall than the Amazon?

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.

The multiple levels and zig-zig nature of these falls attracted my eye. Do you think I can build one in my back yard?
This thundering waterfall was an extra treat as we approached it nearer, nearer, nearer…
And ultimately pull up near enough to get drenched on the top deck of the ferry. You can see some folks on deck recoiling from the falling 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.

Just one of these falls would warrant some intense photography, but four!
I love how this waterfall snakes through the lush New Zealand forest as it makes its way to the sea.
This shows the geology of the cliff walls vary from forested to completely bare rock where the glacier scrubbed it clean and water eroded any hope of vegetation sticking to the side.

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.

Doesn’t the fall on the left make you want to climb up and see the giant river which must lie atop the upper valley that is feeding both falls?

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. 

Kind of hard to take a bad shot with all this beauty!

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.

The tiny waterfall to the left must envy its neighbor, well, one day perhaps!

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.

We close with a selfie just to show you how dry we managed to stay despite the downpour. You can see the exhilaration in our eyes! Do we look 10 years younger?

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