From Student to Professor: Milford Sound

If I had to pick only one word it would be magical. It was about a two hour drive up, mostly in the rain, and still around every bend it was like "oh look at that" and ""oh that's beautiful" and "oh wow." Not many pictures yet because of the rain, though we did pull over for the kia on the guy's car. It was practically like Galapagos: be sure to get my good side.

We are an hour early for the boat. I keep thinking maybe the skies are clearing and then maybe not. Maybe though, it is supposed to be nice in the afternoon. I'm going to come back from the drive home with so many photos. I swear there was a spot I recognized from the films.

The cliff sides are so shear and full of waterfalls. It's just so amazing and cool.

--Later--
We're back at the hotel now. I'm really kind of glad it was rainy in the morning because it made the atmosphere of the whole trip so different on the way up vs on the way back. There are so many waterfalls it was breathtaking in the morning. But I realized they were due to the rain so in the sunny afternoon most of them were gone. Still cool sharp mountains, just different. So I'm glad I got to see them both ways.

The cruise on the sound was good. We took the "nature" cruise, which is longer than the regular cruise and has a naturalist telling you things along the way. Honestly, he wasn't much of a naturalist, he'd just memorized the naturalist tour speech, complete with dumb jokes. But I don't really care as I'm just happy for the extra 45 minutes. The weather did start clearing up pretty much as soon as we were pulling away from the dock. And we got up close with a couple bunches of seals sunning on the rocks.

So here are my quick pix of the day. (The thing is, I get a lot of enjoyment just out of the taking of pictures and so I come back from a day like this with several hundred, but they're all sort of variations on a theme. So these aren't necessarily my best ones from the day, just on a quick look through a handful that stand out.)

Just out the south side of Homer Tunnel. In the morning we came around a hairpin turn and saw the wall above the tunnel and in the rain there were at least a dozen little waterfalls. In the afternoon, when we were facing the right direction to stop and take a photo. there were far fewer.

On the north side of Homer Tunnel there was a lovely mountain stream and some flowers. I know the names of flowers as much as I know the names of birds, but these purple flowers look the same as some that grow in the Pyrenees.

Hollyford Valley Lookout

This is a kia. It's about the size of a chicken, but with a much more fierce beak. Nancy tells me they are the world's only alpine parrot. They're endangered now. Partly it was from the mammals that got introduced who ate their eggs. Partly it was from loss of habitat. Partly it was that they would kill sheep and so the sheep farmers would kill them. Now there are so few left they are protected. But we saw several up in the high mountains.

They've also got great red and orange under feathers.

Our super model poses at Milford Sound.

Milford Sound before we head out on the boats. I'm not necessarily right, but I swear those two hills could get CGI statues of giant kings added to them and they'd be from the Lord of the Rings. They were shooting around here, so maybe, but also I have no idea.

Milford Sound. It was very cool looking in the fog and clouds.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound. Same mountain as above, but now with no rain.

Lots of waterfalls in Milford Sound.

Some of the waterfalls are permanent, and some exist only because we had so much morning rain.

The shear cliffs were formed by the retreating glacier, which is what make it a fjord, and not a sound at all.

Milford Sound

Mirror Lakes. This was one of the pull off places. They say when the conditions are right there is a good reflection of the mountains, but not so much for me.