First of all I want to say that even though I'm many miles away from most of you, my thoughts and prayers are with those being affected by the corona virus. It's still not as bad here, so fingers crossed it stays that way and for all of us I hope it will be over soon.
Because every day here is never the same and all of it looks so beautiful and is exciting means I'm always behind with my stories haha. So this is Milford Sound, people back in the day confused it with a sound but it is actually a fiord. Want to know what the difference is between a fiord and a sound? Don't worry, I will save you the time and effort to look on Google.
Within the last two million years, there were around a dozen major glacial phases in the South Island. Rivers of ice up to two kilometres wide descended from the Southern Alps and flowed slowly but surely down to the sea, carving their course out of the solid rock as they went. Later, when the earth started to warm up again, the glaciers retreated and the ice rivers melted. In some places the trenches and valleys they left became lakes, including lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. In Milford Sound they created a fiord: a sheer, narrow valley opening out to the sea, with high cliffs on either side.
So in short: Milford sound is not an official sound as it isn't wide enough to call it a sound and also a sound is usually formed by the flooding of a river valley and not a glacial valley.
As a real Dutchy, of course I was hoping the weather would be good, the weather men had said the day before it would be rain all over the place, but I was crossing everything it wouldn't. But actually.. people should be happy when it is raining when you visit Milford Sound, you wanna know why? Because Milford Sound has so many beautiful big waterfalls and some are dependent of the amount of rainfall, so for us to actually see the waterfall in all it's glory, we need to have some rain, makes sense right? :)
And finally.. I had some wildlife-luck (yes that's a word from now on), I got to see seals just napping on some rocks in the ocean. It is one thing to see animals in a zoo and work with them, but that isn't as special as see them in their natural habitat. It crossed my mind that maybe we're interrupting them with all those cruise ships but actually.. they weren't even paying attention to us and one seal even posed for the camera haha. And only for a few seconds a baby seal climbed on the rock to cry for his mama and I, as a professional photographer, was able to take some pictures of him! 😎
Okay.. maybe you can't see him that well haha, but just let me be proud of my picture! And click on the photo to zoom, then he is much bigger 😅! He looks so cute , doesn't he?😍 They are called New Zealand fur seals and they are distinguished from other seals by their external ear flaps and hind flippers which rotate forward, allowing them to move quickly on land. New Zealand fur seals also have a pointy nose and are smaller in size in comparison with sea lions.
The day before Milford Sound I went with Federico, an Italian boy, who I met a week before when I was driving back to the family from Mt. Cook. He and I did a hiking track near the Shallow bay, that is 30 minutes from Te Anau. And after that we drove to lake Manapouri which is all part of the National Park Fiordland.
As you can see he loves taking charming pictures when you're not looking haha but other than his photography skills, I liked the conversations we had and it is nice to speak to people from different countries, to share your stories and knowledge and just having a good time together. We met Harris, the bird that didn't want to be left alone, I named him so he would feel like a member of our group on our journey 😋
And after a lovely day of walking, making jokes and laughing our asses off we had a bbq at a public bbq place outside with a stunning view. I think no restaurant has such a good vibe as this. Of course we cooked way too much but it was yummy yummy for my tummy 👌😋 A great ending of the day.. with a red wine sitting on the beach and listening to the sound of the water coming on shore.
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