Milford Sound

The Maoris are claimed to have found Piopiotahi over a thousand years ago. According to their legend, the fjords of Aotearoa were not formed by grinding glaciers, but by an atua - a godly figure - named Tu-te-raki-whanoa. This titanic mason had been given the task to sculpture the western coast of Fiordland, and moving from south to north, he put his giant adze to work, singing a powerful chant, and hued out the many fjords in the region. Piopiotahi, the northernmost fjord, became his masterpiece, and is today known as Milford Sound.

Milford Sound.

Having made the trip to Milford Sound three times by now, we can say that the trip is as much an experience, a discovery in itself, as the actual destination. Often acclaimed the most famous tourist attraction in New Zealand, Milford Sound is the only fjord accessible by road and lies a two hour drive north of Te Anau (excluding stops). It makes a good return day trip from the little service town. You should leave either really early in the morning, or closer to noon in order to avoid most of the tourist buses, some of which come all the way from Queenstown. And don't worry about the weather; the journey to Milford Sound is spectacular no matter what the forecast looks like. We've seen it painted in scattering clouds, in astonishing sunshine from a cobalt blue sky, and in the aftermath of pouring rain. In fact, the fjord is one of the wettest places on Earth with a mean annual rainfall of nearly seven metres over 182 days per year.

At a glance this might not sound so inviting, until you realise one of the most astonishing features of the destination are the hundreds of temporary waterfalls forming after heavy rain. The myriad of vertical streams cascading down the steep cliff faces are like white cracks in the dark impregnable walls. Tapestries of water and stone.

Our best visit to Milford Sound was in fact also the wettest!

Leaving Te Anau, the road follows the shore of Lake Te Anau for about half an hour. At Te Anau Downs the road turns inland, but continues north into the Eglinton Valley between the Earl Mountains and the Livingstone Mountains. Driving on the flat valley floor following the Eglinton River feels like driving in a tunnel; dark mountain walls rise on either side of the yellow plain covered in knee-high grass. The first time we drove through the valley there was an even cloud sheet obscuring the mountain tops, creating a kind of roof over the valley. The feeling was almost claustrophobic.

With the canopy of the rainforest reaching over the road, some parts of the trip felt like driving through a green tunnel.

Further up the valley, the Mirror Lakes are worth a stop while driving through pristine rainforest towards the last and best hour of the journey. Once you reach the Divide (the lowest east/west crossing in the Southern Alps) the scenery turns just mind-blowing for the last 35 km to the head of Milford Sound. Everywhere you look you see towering mountains, green native forest, streams, and after rain, lots and lots of temporary waterfalls. The road is quite narrow and twisty so you can't go fast, but you don't want to either, because you want to absorb the magnificence of the untouched nature filling the car windows.

A couple of kilometres from the Divide there are two lookouts a few hundred metres apart. From them you have two slightly different, but fantastic views of the Darran Mountains and the Ailsa Mountains, with the Hollyford Valley in between. The Ailsa Mountains look like a slender jawbone with sharp shark teeth protruding at varying angles, while the Darran Mountains look brutish and bulky, like the throne of a king of giants.

The Hollyford Valley and the Ailsa Mountains.

The road continues in a north-easterly direction, squeezed between intimidating mountain peaks. At one point you start wondering if the road is going to come to an end, because all you see in front of you is the valley ending in an almost vertical mountain wall. The road twists and turns for a while, and then you see it, the entrance to the Homer tunnel - a dark hole in the rock, dwarfed by the snow-topped mountain ridge above and the nearby waterfall formed by the melting ice.

The Homer tunnel pierces the Homer Saddle and is 1,2 km long. It is very crude, single lane, and unlit. In other words, a thrilling drive. Coming from Te Anau, the tunnel slopes downwards with the exit being 945 metres above sea level. From there the last kilometres to Milford (the name of the small settlement at the head of Milford Sound) are a fairly steep descent with parts of the leg being truly serpentine.

The serpentine road after passing through the Homer tunnel.

The last attraction before Milford is the Chasm; a kind of waterfall with perplexing rock formations formed through the hard work of constant flowing water. Depending on the volume of water in the stream at the time, you might mostly just see foaming white water, or a piece of stone art signed by Nature.

The head of Milford Sound, where Milford with its one hotel, cafe / restaurant / bar, hostel, airstrip and harbour lies, is about 15 km inland from the Tasman Sea. You can't see the open sea from Milford, but what you do see, is an astonishing view of sheer rock faces reaching over 1200 metres skywards, and sharply cutting into the shimmering surface of the narrow body of water separating one shore from another. The iconic Mitre Peak (1692 m) with its skewed summit dominates the left side of the fjord, while the right side boasts with the enthralling white cascade of the Bowen Falls and several behemoth mountain tops, like The Lion (1302 m), The Elephant (1518 m) and snow-covered Mt Pembroke (2000 m).

Iconic Mitre Peak above Giigan's head. The Elephant, the Lion and Mt Pembroke are the peaks in the distance to the right of Mitre Peak.

On our second trip to the fjord we were accompanied by Giigan's parents Jaakko and Eeva-Inkeri. Together with them we went on a 1½ hour cruise through Milford Sound. The weather was quite rough - cold and wet - but as the cruise ship set out the rain stopped and the cloud cover started breaking up. We were extremely lucky, since we were able to stand outdoors on the viewing deck almost all the time and could admire the many waterfalls that had formed after the rain. The ship took us all the way to the entrance of the fjord, where the angry Tasman Sea threw some hard gusts at us, before returning to harbour. On the way back the captain showered the bow of the ship in one of the permanent waterfalls in the fjord, and as the sun came out two rainbows appeared in the spraying mist.

Waterfalls after heavy rain.

We also saw about half a dozen bottlenose dolphins swim past the ship. They weren't in a playful mood so sadly we didn't see much of them. However, we were lucky to see them at all, because the dolphins don't visit Milford Sound that much anymore. It is believed to be a consequence of the popularity of the fjord as a tourist attraction (550,000 visitors/year): tourist ships from several different operators leave the Milford harbour every hour from early morning 'til late afternoon. On top of that, small aircraft and helicopters take off from the airstrip constantly, adding to the hullabaloo. In fact, Milford Sound is far from a silent spot on Earth. All of this is very sad, especially when many of the cruise ships are far from full. The 30 metre-or-so Milford Sovereign we were on could have taken a few hundred people, but there was only about 10 of us onboard. And at the same time two other, although smaller, ships also cruised through the fjord. No wonder the dolphins have retreated to calmer waters.

Milford Sound is without a doubt one of the top three destinations we've visited in NZ. It's remote, wild and stunningly impressive. It's like a focal point of all things beautiful in nature. It's one of those places on Earth, where you feel humble and tiny in the presence of the greater forces ruling this planet. The giant glacier that carved the mighty fjord may not have been the godly figure of Maori legend, but that doesn't mean veneration is out of place. After all, its footsteps have lain unperturbed for millennia...

MORE PICTURES from Milford Sound are available here.