5 Week Tour - 3, Milford Sounds, Under Water Aqaurium in Milford

The road leading up to the Milford Sounds hosts some awesome views of the mountains around. Its a really fun drive (from a passenger point of view) with lots of shallow windy turns, leading round corners that reveal even more amazing things.















The town of Milford is not really a town. Its more where all the staff that work in the area, ie, Guides, DOC workers and Cabin Crew, live when they are not working, with a few cafes and a restaurant. There is also the information centre which doubles as the museum as well.

Just at the end of the Town, the harbour is situated. The main attraction that brings people from all over the world is the opportunity to take a boat through the amazing surround. There are a few different ways to do this, including a large boat that you can stay overnight in luxury accommodation. This is not what we did. Boo! Oh well, What we did was take a small boat in and out that took 2 hours. It stopped in designated areas and the Captain gave you a overview of everything around. Unfortunately for us he had a really thick (European?) accent and we had a really hard time understanding a lot of everything he was saying (did give us a few giggles though!)

I chose the picture above because i thought it gave you a good idea of how absolutely enormous these sounds are. You can see a waterfall just in the left hand corner which, you cant see on the photo, but when we where there, you could see a little dot at the bottom, which actually was a large boat!

Another part of the tour was this Waterfall called Fairy Falls. It was such a light spray, more of a fine condensation, and as it was the right type of day, with the right type of sunlight we could see this double rainbow right in front of us. It was like you could reach out and touch it. Where's the gold!





















Jamie minces as he realises where we are.















On the way back from the Sounds you can pay a bit extra and visit this small Underwater Aquarium. They have managed to grow their own corals underneath as a certain part of the way down the water changes from fresh water to sea water. That's why on the top you cant see anything below the surface. But once you get below, the view is like the picture below.
That's why the Milford Sounds has a such abundance of wildlife, as it has both habitats.

We did get hundreds of photographs with lots of fishies swimming around, but I don't want to overwhelm you......Ill do that when i get home! Bet your looking forward to that, he he he he xx