Milford Sound
Sightseeing
Sunday, August 26, 2007
A spectacular view along our drive to the Milford Sound.
Fred continued to ski this day at Treble Cone but
Lawrence and I decided to head off to the
Milford Sound for a day of
touring. Milford Sound, it turns out, is not a sound after all but a fiord.
The difference is that fiords are formed from millions of years of glacial
erosion, which is how Milford Sound was formed, and sounds are not formed by
glaciers.
The Milford Sound.
The drive to Milford Sound took us three hours and had us pass
through some of New Zealand's most stunning countryside. We passed green
fields filled with sheep, dear, and cattle. We passed tall snow covered
mountains shrouded in clouds. We passed steep snow covered cliffs prone to
avalanches.
We passed through the Homer tunnel carved right through the
heart of a mountain range to arrive at a place unlike any I have ever seen
before; the Milford Sound.
My shipmate.
Because glaciers had cut into the mountain rock what is
left are tall mountain peaks covered with snow that have very straight cut
sides. These cliffs allow hundreds of waterfalls to flow down in from the
Tasman Sea. The Tasman Sea is the body of water which separates New Zealand
from Australia.
Because the mountains at Milford Sound are covered with
snow, and that it rains at times nine meters a year, Milford Sound is
covered with rain forest plants, and is inundated by waterfalls. Lawrence
and I boarded a boat and took a three hour cruse of Milford Sound. The cruse
gave us a close up view of the sound. Its course took us to the mouth of the
sound and back. What a wonderful and inspiring trip this was.
See Milford Sound video