Milford Sound Waterfall

by Carla Parris

Title

Milford Sound Waterfall

Artist

Carla Parris

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Fijords are not just in Scandanavia!

Milford Sound is a fjord in Fiordland National Park in the southwest of New Zealand's South Island. It is an inland finger of theusually turbulent Tasman Sea situated between Australia and New Zealand.

This beautiful area down under was described by Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world. It is part of the Te Wahipounamu UNESCO World Heritage site.

Milford Sound was carved by glaciers during the ice ages. The fjord's cliffs rise vertically from sparkling dark turquoise waters; mountain peaks with lush vegetation reach to the sky; and waterfalls such as that pictured here cascade dramatically into the sea.

Milford Sound has two permanent waterfalls, and is breathtaking in any weather. But when it rains in Milford Sound, as it often does (an average of 7 meters per year), and as it had been doing on the day this photograph was taken, the permanent waterfalls are intensified, additional temporary waterfalls appear, and a moody mist graces the entire scene.

We visited Milford Sound on the last day of a cruise which originated in Sydney, Australia and primarily visited ports on the eastern side of the North Island and South Island of New Zealand. We almost didn't get make it to Milford Sound. The weather was really bad the early part of that day, and there was a concern of tsunamis in the fjords, as there had been an earthquake in Chile in the last 24 hours. However, the tsunamis never materialized (the waves were much smaller than we had encountered in the two day crossing of the rough Tasman Sea), and after having to bypass Thompson Sound, the captain made a last-minute decision that it was safe to visit Milford Sound. The early part of our scenic cruise through the sound was very misty and damp, with somewhat limited visibility, but towards the middle of the cruise, when we were deep into the fijord, conditions improved and we enjoyed spectacular views such as the one pictured here. The consolation for the poor weather than had curtailed our scenic cruising of other fjords earlier in the day was the lush vegetation, and the multitude of waterfalls, that greeted us.

Uploaded

July 30th, 2012

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