Cruising Milford Sound

We left Te Anau with its gorgeous lake behind, heading up to Milford Sound on a 90km no-through road. The morning was crisp and beautiful for a breakfast by the lake.



The lake, the 2nd largest in New Zealand, was eventually left behind and the countryside became ever more remote. Here is one of the last sheep farming stations before the true mountains began.



There are some wonderful stops along the way, including a set of lakes with a crystal clear and smooth surface:





Alpine streams drain from the ever melting snow:





The edge of the snow line is accessible from the road in some places. When its nearly 30 degrees in the valley its hard to imagine how there's still snow present!



You need a lot of patience at the Homer Tunnel - the traffic lights make you wait for up to 15 minutes!



And then out the other side, sweeping hairpin bends carry you down towards the Sound.





Podocarp forest grows thick in the valleys.



And a suprising diversion - The Chasm - is aptly named and amazing to see.



So we finally made it to Milford Sound itself. A true fiord, formed by glaciation and rising sea levels. Perfect for cruising!





Classic 'hanging valleys' - left over from the days of the glaciers:



And the sheer rock walls of the fiord, in some cases over 500m high and a similar amount below the waterline.



The scale is tricky to grasp, but this is a full-sized cruise ship coming round the corner, and it's still dwarfed!





A truely breathtaking place. Unfortunately full of sandflies - which cause a nasty and very itchy bite. We weren't going to hang around, so it was back over the mountains retracing our steps to Te Anau. Next stop, Queenstown.