Milford Sound

We spent the day driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound via Milford Road. The day started off with heavy mist and ice on the roads. When the mist cleared, the sun radiated brilliantly. The views from the road were beautiful - I couldn't resist a picture of the mountains reflected in the 'Mirror Lakes' - it's just a shame that I forgot to turn off the date stamp on my camera! >_<

A trip to Milford Sound has always been high on my list of things to do before I die... It was even more amazing than I imagined! We saw dolphins and seals swimming in the incredibly cold water. Even in brilliant sunshine the mercury barely got over 5 degrees all day.


There's heaps of cruises to choose from - we chose one of the Red Boat wildlife encounter cruises, specifically because I wanted to see some animals :) It was well worth it! The cruise lasted around 2 hours or so. And even though it was absolutely freezing, winter really is the best time to see Milford Sound. Apparently, the area was in drought because it hadn't rained for 9 days! So we were pretty lucky to see clear blue skies.

After the cruise, we made the long drive back to Queenstown where we were staying for the next 7 days. I was looking forward to skiing for the first time and partying on the town!