For most people, the word “fjord” conjures up thoughts of Scandinavia and the majestic, frozen North. But New Zealand, unbeknownst to many, can boast some of the world’s best fjords — hemmed by towering cliffs, fantastically deep and stretching like long, crooked fingers from the Tasman Sea into some of New Zealand’s most lush and remote scenery. They are to be found, appropriately enough, within an enormous and mostly unpopulated wilderness known as Fjordland. The easiest of the fjords to visit is Milford Sound, and I was fortunate to be able to take a two-day boat trip down the length of it a while back. This is what I found.
Pictured above is Mitre Peak, which towers nearly a mile above the surface of the water. The water in the glacier-carved fjord itself is some 1600 feet deep. The veritcal scale of everything in Milford is mind-boggling.
Milford Sound is also the wettest place in New Zealand, making it one of the wettest places in the world — it gets nearly 268 inches of rain every year. That doesn’t stop tourists from visiting, though, because big rains put on a spectacular show, creating hundreds of waterfalls along the 15km length of the sound, which crash from the peaks a half-mile or more to the water below.
We picked an unseasonably dry couple of days to visit the fjords (wouldn’t you know it) but regardless of the drought-like conditions, there were still a few amazing waterfalls to be seen. The captain maneuvered our boat nearly underneath this one, at which point everyone rushed to the bow and got completely soaked.
The peaks along the length of the sound are so high that they kind of make their own weather. Three-quarters of a mile up: clouds. For scale, see if you can pick out the huge, two-story boat at the bottom-right of the cliffs. (They’re that big.)
When Captain Cook sailed past the entrance to the fjords back in the 18th century, he decided not to explore them because, thanks to their extremely narrow-looking entrances, he doubted they led to anything substantial or remarkable. (That’s how another of New Zealand’s fjords, Doubtful Sound, got its name.) As you can see, the cliffs overlap so completely as the sound twists its way to and from the ocean that it’s difficult to see more than a kilometer or two down its length.
One unforgettable treat was kayaking on the Sound at dusk, skirting along the edges of the mighty cliffs and checking out all the seals and seabirds that make their homes near the water. Fed by rainfall but also by glaciers, the water was numbingly cold; luckily, this time I didn’t do what I normally do in kayaks, which is flip over.
We spent the night on the boat, and woke up at the mouth of the fjord, where it joins the Tasman Sea. It was a delicate, still morning, and we were blessed with a rosy dawn, a rare thing in this land of year-round rain.
Looking toward Australia as we headed back:
Mitre Peak in the morning. I tell ya, looking at this rock never got old.
My only regret is that we weren’t able to walk the nearby Milford Track — a multi-day backpacking adventure that’s one of the world’s great hikes — but if any of our readers have, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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Comments (13)
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On the distant planet of Magrathean, Slartibartfast is smiling at this article.
posted by Joel on 3-1-2010 at 8:41 am
Excellent reference Joel!!
posted by Marty on 3-1-2010 at 9:53 am
I had to look that up! Shame on me for never having read the Hitchhiker’s Guide.
From wikipedia:
Slartibartfast is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets.[2] His favourite part of the job was creating coastlines, the most notable of which were the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth,[3] for which he won an award. While Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect were on ancient Earth, they saw Slartibartfast’s signature deep inside a glacier in ancient Norway.
When Earth Mk. II was being made, Slartibartfast was assigned to the continent of Africa. He was unhappy about this, because he wanted to make more fjords (arguing that they give a continent a baroque feel), and fjords in Africa would be hard for him to explain without natural glacial movement.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 3-1-2010 at 10:37 am
Nice article, I visited Milford Sound back in October of 2009. We flew in from Queenstown, and it was easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Just amazing scenery, rivals places like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.
posted by Paul on 3-1-2010 at 11:16 am
My wife and I honeymooned on the South Island of New Zealand for 2 weeks in an RV in 1999. Milford Sound was absolutely one of the highlights. We took the 1/2 day boat tour and were fortunate enough to have a pod of Dusky Dolphins accompany us.
posted by Scott on 3-1-2010 at 1:56 pm
These pictures remind me of some parts of Alaska, another of the world’s gorgeous places.
posted by Jen in Japan on 3-1-2010 at 6:45 pm
I visited Doubtful Sound in Aug 2008. Breathtaking. Literally on the ‘edge of the world’ We were lucky enough to be there after a rare heavy snowfall. (snow actually closed the Milford Road so that shut us out) The boat driver even killed the engine and asked everyone to be silent for a few minutes. It was so cool to hear absolute silence — it is a rare place on Earth not harvested by man.
Go to New Zealand. Go to Milford or Doubtful Sound. If you’re a book geek, you can go to Hobbiton too!
posted by JR on 3-1-2010 at 7:19 pm
As an academic geographer (Canadian), years ago I was on a post-conference bus tour of South Island, and was mortified to learn that we would not be visiting Milford Sound as the tour bus was reportedly too big to go through the approach tunnel. As a lifelong rebel, I persuaded a small group to play hooky the day we were in Queenstown, found an early morning bus, and spent the day at Milford, including a spectacular boat cruise. Still ranks as one of the best days touring I have ever had (and I loved our NZ bus driver who, learning we were overseas visitors, offered to stop the bus anywhere we wanted to take pictures.) Great country and great people!
posted by Gollum on 3-1-2010 at 10:18 pm
I love this country (New Zealand). We’ve been to many places in the 3 years we’ve lived here, but haven’t visited Milford yet. Will try to get to it this year! =) Stunning pictures -
posted by Logan on 3-2-2010 at 3:10 am
Seeing this sort of thing always makes me vaguely ashamed that I’m a New Zealander who lives overseas and hasn’t visited the touristy bits of the South Island since I was a kid. Must… try… harder…
posted by Gwan on 3-3-2010 at 2:21 pm
I just returned from New Zealand, and we had POURING rain while we were at Milford Sound. So we saw those thousands of waterfalls that you talked about, and our kayaking adventure was cancelled. Huge bummer. But, we did do the Routeburn Track, which is supposedly more scenic than the Milford Track, and had perfect weather with amazing views for our hike. I wish I had seen Milford Sound like this instead of gray clouds and mist, though that had it’s own beauty as well.
posted by Suzanne on 3-8-2010 at 5:31 pm
Fingers crossed my honeymoon will be spent hiking the Milford Track. Thank you so much for posting this!
posted by Claire on 5-19-2010 at 5:38 pm
The nerd in me is glad of the _flosser called “Gollum” commenting on a post about New Zealand. ;-)
posted by this is not my name on 8-31-2010 at 7:54 pm