On Friday, I took the long awaited trip to the incorrectly named Milford Sound. It is not a sound, which are large expanses of water formed by the flooding of a river valley, but a fiord, which are also large expanses of water but that are formed by glaciers. And Captain James Cook missed a trick when he didn’t check out this place on any one of his three circumnavigations of New Zealand. Perhaps he was a little world weary after having found himself in another large expanse of water a little further south. That, he named, Doubtful Sound. Doubtful that he would ever manage to navigate himself out again, and Sound, well, because he didn’t know the difference. The Maori name for Milford Sound is Piopiotahi. So I think I’ll stick with that.
Johnno, from Fiordland Tours, arrived right on schedule, at 9am. It had been unusual for me to get up and out before 10am since being on the road. And not just because I was being lazy. But because it was so deeply wintery that the days didn’t seem reasonable before 10. There was no central heating anywhere and it didn’t feel okay to get out of a toasty, electric-blanketed, bed. Going outside before 10 o’clock is for milkmen. Anyway, as I was travelling alone, Johnno told me to hop in beside him. It was another beautiful drive and it was nice to be in the passenger seat again. Especially with a driver who knew his stuff and was quite obviously head over heels in love with his environment.
On the way to Piopiotahi, we stopped off for a couple of short walks. One through an ancient and absolutely freezing, dense, mossy, woodland and another to a roaring waterfall. Although there was hardly a cloud in the sky that day, the two previous days had seen some heavy rainfall so the waterfalls were pumping. I had got dressed in all my clothes that morning. And it was a good thing too.
There was room for 150 or more passengers on board our boat, but as it was there were only 15 of us. Johnno told us that in the height of summer, the ferry terminal building would see 7,000 passengers passing through each day. Tourism has taken a huge hit here, as it has all over the world. It’s a real and pressing concern for many. And meanwhile, I feel like I’ve got a backstage pass again.
I’ve already said that I don’t have the words to even begin to describe how beautiful this country is, how deeply peaceful and expansive the waters are, how unbelievably vast the rock faces are, the snow-capped mountains and waterfalls. And now, posting these pictures, I realise my camera frame isn’t big enough either.
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