Awe

If yesterday was awe-inspiring and humbling then today leaves me speechless - almost.

I was up pretty early so I could enjoy my now signature cruisey breakfast before heading down to the boat for what was to be a two and a quarter hour cruise down Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea and back.

Despite having fined up yesterday evening, today's weather was rainy, misty and dull. I had thought that this might detract from the cruise but in the end I decided it actually added to it. After all - Milford is renown for its rain!

I'd gone prepared - raincoat, puffer vest, woolly hat, several layers (including merino) and cloth to wipe camera - so I decided that the only way to really get 'into' the atmosphere was to stay on deck the whole time. Yes, I was almost frozen by the time we returned (summer? Is this really summer?!) but it was so very well worth it. Unfortunately many of my preferred images have rain drops on them and without a lot of processing - which I don't have the time or the energy for right now - they're not really suitable to post.

This shot is on the return leg. The thin streak of white you can see centre left is Stirling Falls - over 150m of vertical cliff face with water spewing over the edge straight into the fiord. Impressive from a distance - utterly incredible from 10m away when the wind, noise and spray combine to literally take your breath away. The mountain forward of the falls is almost 2000m high. I wish this shot had a boat in it so you could guage some perspective.

Rudyard kipling called Milford Sound the 8th Wonder of the World. In 1990 UNESCO granted the Fiordland National park area World Heritage status. That puts it on a par with the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Taj Mahal in India or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I feel very fortunate to have spent just a few hours here.

The drive out left me quite choked.