Zoe's trip to Milford Sound (South Island, NZ)

We went to Milford a few weeks ago, but the weather was really overcast so I wanted
to go back there when the sun was shining. This pic is of the Hollyford valley,
taken during one of the many stops that the bus makes on the way.

This is the Milford road, look how tiny the coach looks compared to the mountains
..it was a good thing mine had glass panels in the roof so I could get a good look at them!

This is the Gertrude Valley, apparently Edmund Hillary used to hang out here before
he tackled the big one. The Homer Tunnel was just to the left..

The Homer tunnel, built in the '30s by a handful of blokes with shovels.
It's just under a mile long, has no lights in it and is so rough cut it looks
like a cave inside - I was very glad not to have to drive through it myself!

The first look of the Sound when you get off the bus. The man who 'discovered'
it named it after his home town of Milford Haven, good job he wasn't from Skegness!

Mitre Peak (on the left) dominates the view as you first set off on the boat.

There are loads of waterfalls cascading down the sides of the mountains, this one is
created by melt from the glacier you can just see above it and is about 20 storeys high.

You can't really get a feel of just how high the mountains that surround the Sound are with these pics,
but there's quite a large cruise boat on the right that might give you an idea. The sheer wall on the left
was cut by a huge glacier two ice ages ago and the water is around 300 metres deep.

That's all for now folks, more later...