We set out early (9:00) this morning. We took advantage of the clear morning in the region to drive through what we must qualify as the most beautiful road we’ve seen in New Zealand. Picture a majestic fjord, but with a trickle of asphalt and a lot of grass and trees instead of water. That’s what we had for our two-hour drive and our multiple stops for short hikes in this idyllic land.
The reason behind our early rise was so we could go and see Milford Sound (which is not a sound, by the way, it’s a fiord, more on that below). It is on the list of the most beautiful and majestic places we’ve seen. It rivals Plitvice in Croatia (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a couple of minutes to look it up). The almost vertical mountain cliffs on either side, dropping into deep blue water, are breathtaking. We visited it in a dry spell - believe it or not (Milford Sound received 9.5 METERS of rain last year). It was their third day without rain. The region is a rainforest, and you can see thousands of waterfalls coming down those mountains when they are at the peak of the rainy season. Sadly, you probably won't see the waterfall because of all the rain. In any case, it’s incredible!
As promised, why is Milford Sound a false sound? You should know that a sound is essentially a ravine carved by running water (a river). A fjord is the same thing, but carved by Glaciers. They differ in shape (fiords are more V-shaped, while sounds are more U-shaped). It turns out the guy who renamed Milford Haven to Milford Sound didn’t know or didn’t care about the difference. If he did care, it would be named Milford Fiord as the whole region was carved (quite expertly, I might add) by glaciers. I don’t blame him too much for the mistake (just enough, really). It took us the better part of the afternoon to finally get the full story about the difference between a sound and a fjord. The lack of internet connection really slowed down our efforts there, I would say.
We’re coming back from our visit to Fiordland with tons of pictures. In absolute numbers, Karine eclipses me, of course. She has just taken 635 pictures with her camera and 10 with her phone, compared to my 112 with my iPhone. Of course, we won’t share them all; even the top of the crop is more than I want to put in a post.