The big activity for today was driving to Milford Sound. The drive would take us about 2 hours from our place in Te Anau, with about half of that drive being through the Fiordland National Park.

We left the house early so that we would have time to stop as we drove. We’d also read that everything takes longer to drive than expected due to the tiny, twisty roads. Plus, it was slightly below freezing, and the roads would have some frost and ice.

After driving for about an hour, we reached our first stop – a short nature trail. Everything was covered in lush moss, as the park gets more than 20 feet of rain each year.

The forest was mostly red beech, which can grow up to 120 feet with trunks more than 6 feet across.

Like some of the trees we saw in Panamá, the trees in the Fiordlands grow buttresses to support themselves.

Evidently, red beech saplings will wait, sometimes for years, for larger trees to fall, exposing the saplings to more sunlight, which prompts the saplings to shoot up. Ah yes, youths lying in wait for the elderly to die. The circle of life. After winding through the forest, the trail reached the edge of Lake Gunn.

The trees, bushes, and ferns in this area don’t drop their leaves or die back in the winter. Even though it was below freezing, everything was green. I found it a little confusing. It was below freezing, but my eyes told me it wasn’t.

The trail continued to follow the tree-lined lake. On this calm morning, everything was utterly quiet.

We finished up our warm-up hike and hopped back in the car. The road soon started climbing through the mountains, and we took a quick break at Monkey Creek.

No, there are no monkeys. The creek was named after the pet dog of William Henry Homer, a Nineteenth Century European explorer who mapped out a path through the mountains to Milford Sound. Indeed, as we drove we soon reached Homer Tunnel, a 1.2 kilometer long tunnel underneath a “low” part of the mountains.

The tunnel was largely dug by hand starting in 1935 and took almost 20 years to complete. Inside, traffic is one-way, coordinated by lights at either end.

Once through, we started a steep descent through the mountains.

As we still had some time to spare, we stopped at another short trail to see a waterfall. The path took us through similar forests to what we saw on the other side of the pass, except this side has massive tree ferns.

Tree ferns in winter. Bizarre. The plants made it clear that these forests receive tons of rain, but we were fortunate to have a crisp sunny day!

We also spotted our first kea, which is a bird unique to New Zealand.

The kea is a large, olive green mountain parrot — the only alpine parrot in the world. They are curious, intelligent, and mischievous. They have been recorded preparing and using simple tools. They have been know to attack sheep. They are also uncommon, with only about 6,000 left in the world. More on the kea in a bit.

We got back in the car and continued out descent into Milford Sound. We parked in the parking lot and were greeted by another one of New Zealand’s weird flightless birds, the weka.

We soon boarded our boat for Milford Sound. Technically, the Sound is a fiord (or fjord depending on where you’re from). Milford is relatively small compared to the fjords we saw in Norway, but Milford is nonetheless special because of its unspoiled, natural quality. The only “town” nearby is the camp at the base of the sound where we caught our boat. And it was, in fact, gorgeous. These pictures don’t do it justice.

Along the sides of the sound there were waterfalls spilling from the high cliffs. On this bright, sunny day one waterfall was blown by the wind to create a small rainbow.

We really liked the boat company that we used for our tour. They limit the bookings to 50% of capacity to ensure everyone has a good view without having to jostle for space.

We got to the end of the sound and were able to continue a bit out into the Tasman Sea. The captain told us that if we continued due west, we would hit South America. In other words, we were south of the entire continent of Africa.

Once we turned back, we realized that we had been traveling with the wind, making the day seem calmer than it was. The winds were fierce heading back into the sound!

As we headed back down the sound, the captain steered us towards a particularly large waterfall that was kicking off quite a bit of spray.

The captain then urged (almost taunted) us to stand in the front of the boat to get sprayed. It was super cold! As we pulled away, we could look back at another boat passing the waterfall, which gives some idea of the scale.

You can also see the saddle where the water collects. Apparently, different glacial valleys are formed by different ice ages. We were cruising through the deepest, most recent channel.

The weather was spectacular. The scenery was amazing. The team was happy.

Just one more waterfall as we neared the end of our cruise.

An amazing trip on the Milford Sound! We piled back in the car, and started to drive back. We climbed out of the valley and soon reached the Homer Tunnel. This time, we had to wait as the lights were allowing traffic to come from the other direction. On the side of the road we spied a group of three keas.

And then they saw us. The kea’s mischievous reputation is evidently well earned. Two of them hopped on our car, apparently looking for food. They had a bit of a menacing air about them, suggesting that it would be a “shame” if something happened to our car and that we needed to pay the local kea “protection” tax.

Fortunately, the light changed, and we were able to leave before the kea could make good on their threats. On our drive back, we stopped by a large stream to climb on the rocks a bit.

Our final stop for the day was by Mirror Lake, a small pool that provides great views of the mountains.

It had been a packed day. We ended with a quick trip to the grocery store for some pasta sauce and local wine. New Zealand continues to impress beyond our expectations!

-Will