Fiordland
Heading farther Southwest from Queenstown we drove to Fiordland, home of many mountains, glacier carved fiords and very little in the way of civilization even roads. We drove to the one place you can drive to that’s reasonably deep into Fiordland, Millford Sound. The weather here is wet and unpredictable, the annual rainfall here is an astounding 7 1/2 meters (24ft for those of you in the US). Driving in on one of the coolest scenic drives I’ve been on we experienced rain, fog, sunshine and all 3 at the same time at one point. Later on it tried to snow.
I have never seen so many waterfalls before, and the mountains here are stunning. I’m not sure if they are the coolest I’ve ever seen, they may well be, but at least in my top 3. The fiords were carved out by glaciers many ice ages ago and with the glaciers long gone today what remains are the huge fiords with rock faces going straight up. Even more impressive when the valley is full of water like Millford Sound.
The dense cloud cleared over part of the sound somewhat around sunset.
Next morning we took a cruise through the sound out to the Tasman Sea, the closer you get to the mountains the more impressive they are. I’ve never had mountains draw my gaze like these before.
During the cruise we also saw a couple crested penguins and some seals, all of whom sit on the rocks seemingly not caring about the hellish driving sleet at the time.
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Adam
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