The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is one of the most spectacular we’ve ever made.

From rivers flowing hard and fast with glacial melt, the colour of blue gatorade, according to the kids, to the glaciers themselves, laid like blankets over the tops of the imposing peaks.

Of course we picked up a hitchhiker, a molecular biologist, believe it or not, who provided a lovely hour’s entertainment and an interview for an ongoing writing project. His name is Richard. His hat is a bold fashion statement, and he’s one of the most intelligent and articulate hitchhikers we’ve picked up in a while. His blog: Brownian Travel… be sure to sort out the science association in the naming. We munched crackers and talked about his journey while we wound through the valleys descending to one of the most spectacular eco-systems on the planet.

Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound the eighth wonder of the world.

It winds its way 15 km inland from the Tasman Sea. On either side of the narrow waterway mountains leap from deep below the surface, walls of sheer rock, to which a temperate rainforest clings on a precarious layer of moss and lichen. You’ve heard of rock avalanches? Well here they have tree avalanches that occur after a long dry spell, when the mosses dry out and then when the rain starts again the entire layer of vegetation lets go and drops into the sea.

Milford Sound has the second highest rainfall levels in the world. They average 6 meters of rain a year, with a record of 9 being recorded. Think about that for a minute. That’s a lot of rain. The one place that gets more? A mountain in Tahiti. It’s also a very special eco-system. Because so much water runs off of the mountains, a layer of tea coloured fresh water rests on top of the salt water below. This top layer filters out a lot of the light so there is and “artificial depth” created below, where the environment is much darker than it normally would be. What this means is that there are all kinds of interesting creatures that normally live very, very deep in the ocean that live in Milford Sound, making it much easier for scientists to study them!

We took a 2 hour boat ride out through the sound to the edge of the Tasman Sea. The ubiquitous clouds broke and we had a little sunshine. The waterfalls sparkled as they dropped from their high glacial streams into the sea below. The fur seals lounged on their rock and barely bothered to lift their heads as we passed by. The yellow eyed penguins remained elusive, to Ezra’s disappointment. He may have to settle for the one blue we’ve seen in the wild.

There are loads of bus and flight trips in and out of Milford Sound and they crank an amazing number of people through the boat trips every day, but if you can manage to drive yourself and stay a night or two you won’t regret it. There aren’t many places to stay; a few DOC campsites on the road out, but they are quite a long way from the Sound. The only proper accommodation we saw was the Milford Lodge, which is where we stayed. It’s a really neat place; a combination of campground, youth hostel, cabins and nice motel, depending on what you’re looking for. It’s where the hikers coming in off of the famous Milford Track stay, and it’s the best place to stay if you’re looking to get the less crowded early morning boats, before the bus tours start arriving.

Without further ado, Milford Sound & around: