Milford Sound

We would have endured a whole trip's worth of bad weather (thank goodness we didn't have to!) in order to have the great weather we enjoyed on our Milford Sound day.  It couldn't have been more glorious.  We woke up very early in Te Anau, broke camp, packed up, and commenced the 2-hour drive through the picturesque Fiordland National Park en route to Milford Sound.

Do you see the kereru (New Zealand pigeon) in that last photo?  Here's a closer look:

One highlight for the kids was driving through a long tunnel cut into the mountain of solid rock:

We reached Milford Sound in good time and started gathering our things in preparation for our boat tour.  No sooner had we opened the doors to the van than we got swarmed by sand flies.  They were terrible!  Oh my goodness, if you don't know about sand flies, they are small (almost like a fruit fly), but they pack a painful bite which produces (at least in my experience) much more redness, itchiness and swelling than a mosquito bite.  There is repellant available, which helps a bunch, but none of us were completely immune to bites.  We saw so many people on our journeys who fared much worse, with arms and legs covered by bite marks.  Yikes.  Legend has it that when the gods realized that people had discovered (and were flocking to) Milford Sound, the gods sent the sand fly to be a nuisance and a deterrent so the people wouldn't stay too long.

Once we had boarded our boat and got moving through the water, the sand flies were no longer an issue, and we were able to truly enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  Just prior to boarding, a photographer snapped a quick pic of our group...one of our favorites from the whole trip!

One of the first things our tour guide said over the speaker was that it was possibly the nicest day they had seen in Milford Sound throughout the whole month of January (we were there near the end of the month).  Lucky us!

Passing by a seal colony:

An up-close look at one of the many beautiful waterfalls:

About halfway through the three hour tour, we exited into the ocean and slowly turned around to go back into the sound.  Interestingly, Milford Sound is actually not a sound, but a fjord.  While we are on the subject of fjords, I have no idea why the national park is spelled Fiordland and not Fjordland.  But anyway.  We learned all about the differences between the two classifications (sound and fjord).  After being called "Milford Sound" for so many years, no one wanted to change the name to "Milford Fjord" (I don't blame them). 

Looking back into Milford Sound from the Tasman Sea:

We figured that this was a perfect time to go below deck to the dining area for lunch.  We sat right next to the piano and took turns playing a few tunes.  Rachel played as much as she could remember of Cristofori's Dream, and I played from that songbook on top of the piano which contained popular wedding/love songs -- Endless Love, The Rose, that sort of stuff.  Afterwards, a group of older European tourists gave us a little round of applause.  It was cute.

Back into the sound...er, fjord...for more stunning waterfalls and sheer cliffs:

One last look at Milford Sound before disembarking:

Headed back to the car with big smiles on our faces, grateful for the opportunity to have seen Milford Sound in all its glory!