You have to be there, to experience and believe it… it’s something you’ll never forget all your life.

In my previous posts on New Zealand, I lead you up to the arena before the tunnel. Now I’m going to take you through… 

To the other side of Homer Tunnel:

After escaping the scary tunnel, we continued along a narrow twisting turning road. And closer to the harbour, the road keeps company with a river. Even through you get impatient to see Milford Sounds, I must say travelling along this road is fascinating in its own right. 

The harbour:

When we came out into the harbour area, I must say it wasn’t what I expected. For one thing the parking was far from the harbour where the huge tourist boats awaited passengers. We had to walk a long way to get to the boats.

Because of the damp, mist and rainy conditions of the area, a covered walkway is provided most of the way to the boats. And while you are walking along this wooden plank walkway, you can enjoy the foliage and nature that grows along the edge of the Fjord’s harbour. 

We booked our tour at the terminal centre and then waited some time for our boat to come in.

 

When our boat did came; we clambered aboard and sort out a place to settling down and enjoy the trip. The boat was very spacious. There were many tables to choose from and to sit at, and order something to drink if you so wished. 

Our tour of Milford Sounds:

The Fjord-lands nature reserve is on the bottom west side of New Zealand’s south island. It consists of a wide wild open area, with many islands and inlets. Some places of it I think no one has ever been to. 

And there’re long ranges of tall mountains there, like fingers pointing outwards onto the west side of the south island. These mountains are covered with snow all year round, and of cause in summer the melting snow creates beautiful cascading waterfalls and raging rivers. 

When you’re aboard one of the touring boat, the driver takes you through the sounds channel, out towards the sea, then back again closer to the left side this time. 

Matchless beauty:

Comparing the size and width of the sound is truly hard to describe. It’s so wide and deep,  with towering mountains on each side. 

Our huge touring boat, with its upper and outer decks, seems really insignificant to the size of the mountains surrounding us. 

You could see quite a few waterfalls, on both sides of the sound, along the way to the mouth of the Sound. The waterfalls were extremely beautiful, rushing and gushing down the mountain sides, with their spray floating up and out over the sound. With Each waterfall your mouth hangs open in awe. This is indeed a fairyland of wonderment. Beyond anyone’s expectation.

Sorry I couldn’t show you more waterfall photos. Because of the spray the air is so foggy with mist. This makes your photos look grey and dull looking. 

Then the going out to sea… 

And back again:

The driver of our boat turned our boat around out at sea, causing the boat to heave in the bigger waves out there. That added a trill of excitement to the trip. 

But he didn’t go out too far, I suppose for safety purposes, before returning back up the Sound. It was quite fun to watch the waves caused by the speed of the touring boats, as they ran across each other’s wave-tracks. 

 

At this point, there were only a couple of boats at the time we were out there. Even though touring boats are huge, looking out at the other touring boats, they looked pretty small and silly in relation to the size of the channel and the towering misty mountains. That’s how magnificent and stupendous the whole scene is. 

The ecstasy of the biggest waterfall:

Knowing the tourists would want to get a close up of the biggest waterfall, the driver drew the boat closer to a magnificent waterfall on the way back to harbour. 

I was already out on the back deck, eager to take photos. But then I started to realize that the boat was getting too close, and that the mist and spray would damage my camera.  

So I tried to get back into the covered lounge area. But it was tough and hard going because so many people were rushing and pushing to get out on deck to take photos of the waterfall.

Secret intentions:

They thought the driver of the boat was been ever so kind to us, by giving us a chance to have lovely close ups of the waterfall. But little did I and they know his intentions… 

He was manoeuvring and revering the boat so that the force of the water would pour down on over the rear-end of the boat and the tourists! 

And the tourists were out back, were getting their cameras all ready to focus… suddenly realized it was too late. And… how they shrieked and screamed with shock, as they tried to run back inside into the boat’s lounge! 

And… how, the driver laughed!

You could hear him over the loud speaker. He was crying with laughter. The laughter rang in all our ears. 

Even though it was naughty of him, we all laughed too. It was indeed funny how the people scrambled to in such a forceful plunge to safety. It added a thrill to our trip. And to every other trip the driver was at the wheel, I expect too! 

Last of all, I'm keeping back my oil painting for you to see: