Milford Sound and the Fjordland

Milford Sound is part of the fiordland in the south-west of the south island. We drove here from Queenstown and that in itself was a great experience. Open plains filled with tussock, followed by a massive blue lake, then the steep approach into the Milford area and its dramatic mountains – it was really special. The area gets 9m of rainfall a year, that’s 25mm a day! We fluked it though as it rained as we turned up, then we had 3 days of blue skies 🙂

We decided upon a couple of activities: a boat ride to explore the mountains and waterfalls and then a 2 day hike on the “Routeburn track”. The latter is one of New Zealand’s “great walks” and we would agree! We walked for about 6 hours each day and stopped in a department of conservation (DOC) hut overnight. The hut was sooo remote and it turned out we were the only ones staying! No electricity, gas or lighting! The location though was beautiful. On the way back we spotted a kea, a native mountain parrot.

Perfect reflection at the routeburn DOC hut

The world’s only mountain parrot; the”Kea”

Routeburn hike; Sophie enjoying one of many stunning views

Milford Sound

Olly spotted a mountain

View from Milford boat

Mirror lake reflection of the fiordland mountains

Moss-covered forests common all over Milford

The reason Milford is green… Rain!!