To Milford Sound

We could have missed our bus to Milford Sound, but thank goodness we happened to read our itinerary again and determined that, rather than walking a mile to the bus stop, we needed to walk fewer than 300 meters . . . quite a difference! And within a few minutes our driver, Stan, met us and we were off on a 4-hour drive to Milford Sound. The first part of the drive was rather unscenic, as it looked much like what we had seen - hilly, brown mountains with sheep, cattle, and deer in the paddocks (look at that - meters, paddocks - I am learning the lingo!), small towns, and cute shops. But then we changed the habitat and suddenly we were in the beech forest. This was what I thought all of New Zealand looked like - green, green, water, more green.

Apparently when it rains, the prolific waterfalls are flowing fast and large, but since the island is mostly rock, once the rain stops, so do many of the waterfalls. We managed to snag a perfect day, so the waterfalls were not as numerous, but we found some beautiful ones anyway.

And as we approached Milford Sound, we saw the mountain that identifies the area - Mitre Mountain. What a beautiful way to begin the day.