Milford Sound

Hello dear ones,

About 2 hours by car from Te Anau, you will find Milford Sound. Milford Sound is located in the Fiordland of New Zealand and is the only fjord in the entire Fiordland that can be reached by car. The other fjords can only be reached by boat or helicopter, making trips to them very expensive. However, you can only experience the beauty of the fjord by booking a boat or kayak tour. There was a combination of both from one organizer. The kayak tour started at 8 am in the morning! That means you have to be at least 10-15 minutes earlier and the travel time is about 2 to 2.5 hours, so we had to get up very early... We arrived there at 7:15 am, we were the only ones on the road... we still had to figure out where we had to go. When we arrived there, there was no one else except us. We waited and after a short time more and more people arrived who were doing the same tour as us. With a delay of 20 minutes, our guide finally arrived and the fun could begin. He gave us clothing and kayak equipment (thermal clothing and life jackets) to put on. After everyone had changed, he familiarized us with the kayaks and did dry exercises with us for proper paddling and getting in and out, showed us how to adjust the rudder pedals correctly, and off we went onto the water. Always in pairs of kayaks. There were a total of 9 of us, 7 of whom were Germans. When we were on the water, we saw a dolphin mom with her baby after about 10 minutes. And it was breathtaking! Not 50 meters away from us... :O Unfortunately, they are very fast and don't like to be photographed. That's why we couldn't take a picture. During our kayaking tour, Robbie, our guide, told us something about the history of Fiordland and the formation of Milford Sound. He also mentioned that a scene from "Wolverine" was filmed here and many other movies. In addition, we were able to make a detour with our kayaks to a place that can only be reached when there is a flood. We were lucky once again that morning, as we were before with the dolphin mom and her baby. Through narrow sea lanes and dense undergrowth, we reached a bay in a forest. There are leaves that taste like peppercorns. The kayak tour was very nice, especially since we had never been kayaking before!

Once back on land, we cleaned up our kayaks, changed clothes, and were driven to our boat tour by a shuttle service. On the boat, there were lunch packs and coffee. The tour goes all the way through the fjord to the Tasman Sea and back to the dock. We saw penguins, sea lions, and many waterfalls. We took many pictures so that you get a good idea of what it looks like here.