Te Anau

Dennis and I drove to Milford Sound this morning for a 2-hour cruise.

The scenery on the way was amazing! It was a two hour drive but Te Anau is the closest town to Milford Sound.

Our boat awaits for a promised amazing experience and it was X 10. Milford Sound is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand, and the wettest place in the world! The mean annual rainfall in Milford Sound is 270 inches, and it rains here on average 200 days a year. It is not unusual to have 10 or more inches of rain in any given day.

Milford Sound, also the name of a hike, is a fiord in the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island. It’s known for towering Mitre Peak, plus rainforests and waterfalls. I looked up what  a fiord is and got this from Wikipedia, "A fiorda is long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as in Norway, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley."  Yes, we all think of Norway but New Zealand also has fiords.  Who knew?

Everywhere we looked, there was breath-taking beauty.

At first, I didn't know what everyone was rushing to the front of the boat for.

SEALS!

They were so still that I didn't realize what I was looking at.

Breath-taking!

As we approached the pacific ocean, the water got rougher.  Good thing I took Bonine seasick pills before we left.  If you even mention ocean, I get green at the gills. Our captain said the waves often get to 9 feet tall. Oh, my!

I don't have adequate words to describe how beautiful these towering mountains are.

Bowen Falls from a distance.

Bowen Falls was the most magnificent waterfall we saw on our cruise and it  is the highest at 161 metres or 130ish feet. It is named after lady Diamantina Bowen who was the wife of the fifth Governor of New Zealand. 

I loved every minute of this cruise.  I cannot imagine visiting New Zealand and not taking this cruise.

Two hours to get back to the hotel. We had to go through this really long tunnel straight through the mountain.

Cars lined up to enter the tunnel in the opposite direction.  We were both exhausted by the time we got back to ou hotel.  Whew.  Who knew a boat ride and driving mountain roads could be so exhausting.  Tomorrow, we take a puddle jumper to Stewart Island for two nights.

Good night!

P. S. I am sorry that some of you are not getting automatic emails. I don't know why. You may have to sign up again. The blog address is HTTP://blog.adventuregirl.world. If you have never signed up, please do. You only get an email if I am hiking somewhere in the world. I am not nearly big enough to sell your address if I actually knew how to do this.