How does Milford Sound to you?

The Homer tunnel took us under the mountain (no goblins or balrogs) and disgorged us at the head of a valley leading down to Milford Sound. The valley walls were an impressive sight, steep and dry.

Not being the type to shilly-shally, we made it to the wharf with two or three minutes to spare before an afternoon cruise on the sound (pedants would, at this point, observe that Milford is actually a fiord and not a sound at all). The boat cruise, though wet, was dramatic. Apparently this area attracts around 6-8 metres of rain per year, they're not kidding.

The campsite was set in a lovely forest grove. Having not learnt our lesson well from Queenstown, once again we parked under a tree, though in our defence...it was a forest grove, difficult not to park under a tree. This time wind was not our enemy but the rain downpour. The rain drops would gather on the leaves before becoming too heavy and blatting their significant load onto the roof of our camper. We are sleeping above the driving cabin so we don't have to remove the bedding each day. However it does mean the roof is about 20cm above you in a little cavity that accentuates the noise.

After less sleep than desirable we hit the road before the sun has risen. The rain has not stopped all night which has meant the steep dry walls we drove through yesterday are now a walls of waterfalls, truely breathtaking. We wish we had time to stop for the sun to rise fully and the rain to stop (we could be waiting for a while), so we could photograph and appreciate it for longer. However, we had to reach Te Anau to visit our next fiord.

All right, we have to admit that we rushed it a bit. In our defence, it was appallingly wet and we do intend to return.