11&12|02|19, Milford Sound, the eighth wonder of the world?

Hi guys,

what can I say, the past few days have been absolutely amazing! I feel like I start almost every blog post like this, but it really was incredible.

Yesterday morning at 4:45AM, the alarm went off, I quickly made myself a coffee, we got ready and then the adventure began. The first stop was the gas station, where we filled up the car before heading into the middle of nowhere. We drove for about 3 hours through the stunning sunrise of the Fjordland National Park, a region of such beauty that I had never seen before. The Fjordland is the rainiest place in the world with 6.7 meters of rain per square millimeter, which is why it is often described as the eighth wonder of the world. It rains about 200 days a year, sometimes even more, and you can definitely see that. The national park is characterized by huge mountains and "jungle-like" forests that grow on the mountains thousands of meters high. There are large glaciers and snow on the mountains, amazing birds everywhere, and a road right through it all. Our destination was Milford Sound, the most famous and most visited fjord in the national park!

After driving this road of incomparable beauty all the way to Milford Sound, we were already very impressed upon arrival, but the view of the fjord was simply unbeatable. We took a boat tour through the fjord, along the partly 2000-meter-high mountains that rise directly from the water, and I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything looked like it was painted. We sailed very close to a waterfall that flowed directly into the fjord, and I couldn't stop marveling throughout the entire trip. It quickly became clear to me why this place is the most visited in all of New Zealand. After about 2 hours of boating, we returned to our car with new unforgettable impressions and completely blown away by everything we had seen. Unfortunately, there were no free hikes in the region around Milford Sound, so there was nothing else to do after the tour. However, on the way back through the national park, we did a beautiful hike through the jungle to a meltwater lake surrounded by 2000-meter-high granite rocks, which was very impressive. We refreshed ourselves in the lake's cold water and enjoyed nature for a while. In the evening, we went to a campground located in the valley of several mountains in the middle of the national park and spent the night there.

We got a taste of the aforementioned rain again last night, as our originally planned hike in the national park was unfortunately too dangerous due to the mainly climbing involved, which is risky on wet rocks at this altitude!

So we drove the beautiful route again, did some shopping, and then returned to our New Zealand "hometown" Lumsden, to the campground where we had already stayed several times before.

We had delicious wraps, drank a few beers, and met some super nice German campers with whom we chatted late into the night.

Tomorrow we will go to another glacier, the "Rob-Roy Glacier," where we will do another hike.

What amazing days!😍

Greetings from Lumsden, New Zealand!🇳🇿

Your Tim!😊