The Southern Alps meet the sea along the west coast of New Zealand’s south island, and the resulting landscape can be spectacular. Such is the case at Milford Sound. The soaring mountains abruptly meet the sea. Mitre Peak rises just over a mile high straight out of the water.
Milford Sound gets an unbelievable 6+ meters of rain a year. Even Portland doesn’t reach even a single meter. It’s the second rainiest place on the planet. Waterfalls emerge from everywhere. As you can see though, our run of good weather continued. Another fine day for a 2-hour cruise.
As we reached the opening of the sound to the sea, we were met by a thick blanket of clouds.
Here’s a look back into the Sound and its blue sky.
From the ocean, you can’t really see the opening to the Sound. Captain Cook marked this as a Bay in his log and never discovered the Sound.
With the extreme rainfall, the Sound has a layer of silty (dark) freshwater on its surface. The lack of light fools marine life into thinking the water is much deeper than it is. Many sea creatures normally found only miles deep are relatively near the surface here. Along with Doubtful Sound a bit up the coast, it’s the only place on the planet with this phenomenon.
We snapped a few parting shots of the Southern Alps as we drove back to Queenstown.
