I had been somewhat concerned about whether I was ever going to see Milford Sound, particularly as I'd missed out on the Tongariro crossing and Franz Josef already, due to poor weather. This time, the trip had been cancelled all week due to a massive landslide, some of the rocks were over 200 tonnes! However, I got up at 7am and was pleasantly surprised that it was finally going ahead :-)

The journey to the sound was around 4 hours on the coach, but the scenery was beautiful. There was only one road to take into Milford Sound, hence the week's closure. We entered Fiordland, a pristine conservation and world heritage site, bigger than Devon and Cornwall put together and stopped off to take pictures. There were Kea birds (also known as Alpine Parrots), the only birds in New Zealand found above the snow line. The area was formed by glaciers and wrongly named Milford Sound, as sounds are formed by rivers.

Not only were we lucky the road was back open, but the weather was on our side too (mostly). I was relieved we had some sunshine and only a little rain during our time on the boat. We had a buffet lunch onboard and as we travelled through the Fiord the captain told us what to look out for. We saw waterfalls, mountains, penguins and fur seals.

Then it was on to the underwater observatory. Milford Sound's aquatic life is different in respect that organisms often living deeper in the ocean often live in much shallower water. This is due to the freshwater sitting on top of the marine water and causing a light barrier. Therefore, organisms like black coral, often found around 60-80m down grows at just 10m, as it is tricked due to low light availability. It was great for me, as a big fish geek, to look at things I wouldn't normally have the chance to see.

As we left Milford Sound the weather had decided to turn, the clouds came in, and it was clear we'd been lucky enough to enjoy the surroundings during the best weather of the day.