Milford Sound

The weather was bad when we left Te Anau, and it only got worse the closer we got to Milford Sound. 

There were moments when the sun broke out from the clouds, bringing hope that was snatched away as soon as the sunshine disappeared again (sometimes only seconds later). When the rain started to fall, all we could do was laugh. 

In case you don't know, Milford Sound is the name of one of the fjords on the South Island of New Zealand. It's definitely the most well-known of the fiords, and I think it's the only one you can get to by road. The photos we had seen of it were out of this world. It was one of the few things we knew we absolutely wanted to see, however we had to make that happen. 

And as we were driving there..... it started to rain. 

Milford Sound was an absolute must-see and it was raining so heavily we could barely see the mountains we knew were there. If we didn't laugh, we would cry. 

We were going on a boat tour of Milford, with a break for of kayaking in the middle. The rain was unrelenting. One woman in the visitor centre told us kayaking would be "more fun in the rain" - I think I saw her smile falter when she saw how disbelieving we looked. 

Amazingly though, the weather didn't ruin our day. The fog cleared as our boat ride got under way, revealing the immense faces of rock rising up on either side of us. Plus we discovered the beauty of seeing Milord in the rain....

The hundreds of temporary waterfalls. 

*

I have no way of describing the way we were dwarfed by what we saw. That boat is the size of a decent ferry. It was incredible. 

Some of the many, many waterfalls we saw that day.

When the boat drove towards that waterfall and then turned (so that both the front and back of the boat felt the force of the fall) we were almost blown overboard. It was insane. 

I can barely even comprehend this picture and I was the one who took it. 

I may have been so scared I cried but kayaking here was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. 

This was one of about 15 pictures our tour guide took. I have no idea if he didn't know how to use my phone or if he thought we looked so bad, he kept trying to get a better photo and eventually gave up....

I took this from the kayak and I think it's my favourite photo of the day. Can you believe we were here, looking out at that? 

LOOK AT THE SIZE COMPARISON. 

This whole view was covered by fog when we walked to the terminal, so we were both glad we had at least a partial view of it on the way back. Unfortunately we could only stop long enough to take this picture: the rain had stopped which meant the infamous sandflies were out in force. Tom was being eaten alive!