Since the internet at the Auckland library is super slow and the firewall will only let me upload one picture at a time, I'm going to have to be more descriptive than usual when explaining our trip to Milford Sound. So, use your imagination!
Heading to Milford is supposed to be the highlight of everyone's trip to the south island of NZ, so there were pretty high expectations heading out in the morning. It had finally stopped raining in the Fjordlands, just in time for our trek to be over. But, although the sun was bright and sunny in Te Anau, by the time we neared the sound it was pretty overcast. But at least it wasn't raining!
We got on the boat and were immediately surrounded by high steep mountains coming straight out of the water. You couldn't really appreciate it until the boat came closer to the mountains and you were looking straight up the sides of the cliffs.
What was really surprising was how much vegetation was able to grow on the cliff walls. Our guide explained to us that due to the 7m of annual rainfall, the moss grows very thick and then the roots of the trees embed into the moss since they cannot go into the rock. What happens sometimes though, is that if one tree dies or gets blown over, it rips all the connecting moss and other trees down with it. They call this a treelanche (very creative). You can see this in some of the pictures, that there are lighter streaks on some of the cliffs where the trees and moss are missing.
More from Queenstown soon!
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