Milford Sound: A Magical Land

This blog entry about Milford Sound need not require more than a simple photo to capture its essence, but I'll write a few words anyway to tell you of our journey to this magical land.

Picture #1:

See, I told you. This place is AMAZING. Even Chris thinks so.

It's not like any place that you've seen before, unless you've been here. But we seemed to arrive at a perfect time - rainy, misty, and cold. The ominous clouds signaled our entry into a magical part of the south island.

Imagine the movie The Lord of the Rings but actually being there. Don't imagine Hobbiton, though. Instead, imagine the parts with the Ringwraiths and their black horses or any of the Gollum parts. The scary parts. As we drove along the Milford Road, our views turned from cheerful farms filled with sheep, deer, and cattle to vast empty fields with a backdrop of gloomy, extravagant mountains. The further we drove into the mountains, the more we felt engulfed by them, slowly becoming them. The mist was so thick you could spoon it up. The rain was intense that the mountains looked as if they were weeping, numerous waterfalls slowly spilling over their rocky sides. At the highest points, you could see snow-capped peaks and the occasional glacier.

Speaking of glaciers, the name "Milford Sound" is in fact a misnomer. It's not a sound.

Sound, n. 1 a: a long broad inlet of the ocean generally parallel to the coast b: a long passage of water connecting two larger bodies (as a sea with the ocean) or separating a mainland and an island.

Rather, it is a fjord.

Fjord, n. a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes

Hmmm. Merriam-Webster has failed me. I was looking for the definition of a fjord that tells you that a giant glacier, in fact, is responsible for the valleys and mountains that provide the eerie atmosphere of Milford Sound. You can tell by looking at the "U" shaped valleys in between these monumental mountains. Shifting tectonic plates can create mountains, too, but the valleys in between them are "V" shaped. Enough of the science lesson. Just look at the pictures.
And if you stick around long enough, you will see that Milford Sound can change. One day it can be a rainy, wet and extremely beautiful place. The next day it could be completely sunny, not a sign of mist hanging low to the ground, nor weeping mountains. It's like it was all a dream. (ETK)