The 8th Wonder of the World?

If I were naming the wonders of the world I can't say that this place would make the list; but Rudyard Kipling is the one who famously dubbed Milford Sound the Eighth Wonder of the World.  To clear up any further confusion, it is not a sound; it is a fjord.  "Sounds are formed when a river valley is flooded with the sea, whereas Milford Sound was carved out by an erosion of ancient glacial ice." Here are two other interesting facts about Piopiotahi: it is one of the wettest places on earth (268 inches of rain annually) and is hundreds of meters deep with a combination of fresh and salt water.

To have our cruise at Milford Sound we had an early wake-up call.  Telli met us at 5:45am with breakfast on the bus and we were off.  The first two hours of the drive it was either too dark or too foggy to see anything out the windows, but when the sun rose and the fog started to burn off -- wow.  The main objective didn't stop us from some very cool photo stops along the way.  Knobs Flat was first with of great view of the mountains out in the distance.

The photo win of the day was at an unexpected location: Lake Gunn.  Remember the tips for getting a good "mirror effect" on Lake Matheson?  We stopped not long after dawn and there was no wind so the water was perfectly still, adding to the drama were low clouds in spots.  To be fair to Milford Sound, if the views of Lake Gunn hadn't been so spectacular maybe I would have been more impressed with the fjord.

Before finally arriving at Milford Sound we drove through the fascinating Homer Tunnel.  Started in 1935 by five men on a government work project, the number of men soon increased despite the harsh working conditions (tunneling by hand and bad weather), work was, after all, scarce during the Great Depression.  They made it through in about 5 years, but it wasn't wide enough for cars and the work was delayed by WWII and a large avalanche.  The 1.2km tunnel was finally opened in 1954, prior to this you had to fly or hike over or sail around the mountain.  The strangest part for me was going through a tunnel that was on an incline.

I love a good cruise so, despite not being incredibly impressed with one of the biggest tourist attractions in the entire country, I enjoyed it.  Since it was a clear day we were able to view both of the permanent waterfalls; when it is raining many temporary ones crop up.  As seen in the photos there are sheer rock faces, some 3,900 ft or more, on either side of us for most of the cruise.

The fjord is frequented by many animals such as seals, whales, penguins, and even dolphins, but the water is so dark it can be very hard to spot them if they're not close to the boat.  Before returning to the dock we even cruised briefly into the Tasman Sea (it was insanely windy out on the open sea).

I suppose the sheer scale of things is what makes it so impressive

The route back was identical, but this time we could see the entire drive.  Apparently Te Anau has a lake, it was too foggy when we'd stopped that morning.  It is known as the gateway to Fiordland National Park and apparently the lake has a lot of trout.  We got back into Queenstown and all headed out to a late dinner...day four complete.