The photo on the cover of my Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand's South Island is of Mitre Peak in Milford Sound on a gloriously sunny day. However, Milford Sound is one of the rainiest places in the world, receiving between 7 and 9 *metres* annually,so it's quite likely you'll see it on a wet day. But all is not lost as the rain means that you'll see dozens of temporary waterfalls streaming down the cliff faces.
I'd decided to avoid the crowds of the day trippers from Queenstown and Te Anau, and opted for an overnight cruise on the Milford Wanderer. The Wanderer mainly caters for backpackers, with people sharing 4 berth cabins. In a stroke of good luck, the boat was only half full (apparently only the 2nd time this year that it has not been full to capacity), so friends, family and couples were able to have their own cabins. I had one cabin all to myself, which was fantastic. To guarantee single occupancy on the posher sister ship the Milford Mariner would have cost 2-3 times more! (admittedly with an ensuite bathroom and a proper bed)
There was a great mix of people – ranging from couples from Switzerland and Germany, a sweet Japanese couple travelling with their grandson, a Canadian family and the irrepressible Laurie and Jack from Sydney. We all gathered in the saloon for our safety briefing. “The stairs are very steep - they were designed by an idiot!” warned the captain. Another crew member held up a lifejacket: "If you see loads of these coming your way, then there's a problem!"
After some delicious pre-dinner mushroom and capsicum soup, we all went outside to enjoy the scenery of the fjord (or fiord as they spell it here). It becomes difficult to judge perspective when you’re in Milford Sound, even though the Mariner being dwarfed by the towering cliff faces ahead of us provided some scale for my photos. It began to sink in as we sailed past Stirling Falls, and were told that it is 154 metres high, or the same height as a 50 storey building.
Our anchorage for the night was in Harrison Cove. We had the option of either going out on the tender craft or kayaking. As I was pretty sure that there was a high chance of dropping my camera into over 300m of water whilst trying to handle a kayak paddle, I went out on the former with nature guide Leah.
Leah stunned us with the information that due to a fault line running through the region, there are over 1,000 earthquakes per month in Milford! We looked up at the glacier on top of Mount Pembroke, and thanks to the overcast day, you could clearly see the blue hue of the glacial ice. She also explained that the bald patches on the rock faces were due to vegetation sliding off after a heavy rainstorm, as their roots are very shallow.
After a very filling dinner of slabs of roast beef, potatoes, veg and a yummy apple tart with ice-cream and custard, stacks of board games came out for the evening entertainment. I was tempted by the New Zealand version of Monopoly, but that was swiftly nabbed by a couple of the kids on board. Instead, I ended up playing various games with Laurie and Jack – the first one was a story-telling memory game, followed by another which involved naming song titles that began with each letter of the alphabet (and then singing a couple of lines). I was completely rubbish at this and needed a lot of help from Laurie!
All those who hadn't already gone to bed early then joined in the Maori version of Run, Rabbit, Run (Oma Rapeti) which Jack taught us, accompanied by his ukelele. It was maddeningly infectious, and it was still going around in my head the next morning.
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