Another perspective on the fjords...

We traveled through fjordland to Milford Sound. These fjords seem different from Norway in that there seem to be more forests, almost tropical (due to all the ferns and lichen), and more wet. According to our guide, it rains 2 of every 3 days year (7 meters, or 275 inches per year).
There are tour buses everywhere. This is the most tourists we've seen since we started. It's the 2nd highest tourist site in NZ, after Queenstown. But we got pretty good at avoiding the crowds.

We stopped to hike in the woods around Lake Gunn. It's a temperate rainforest (as opposed to a tropical rainforest). Lichen is everywhere, it covers the ground and trees. The forests are NZ beech trees, but they are nothing like our beech trees. The Latin genus for the tree means "false beech".

We saw a couple of interesting plants. One that has tiny prickles is named the Bush lawyer (because once a lawyer gets his hooks in you...). Plants like these are why local trampers have picked up the fashion trend of wearing long underwear under their shorts. Another, the tutu plant has leaves that are poisonous to elephants (thus why no elephants exist in NZ ;). The seeds are poisonous to humans (although the juice and pulp is fine). The third, the Horoeka is interesting because the leaves go through three life cycles, which distinctly changes their look. They call the different life stages: infant, adolescence, and adult. At one time, these were thought to be 3 different plants. We saw one tree that had older (adult) leaves at the top, adolescence leaves in the middle, and newer (infant) leaves at the bottom. Most of the time you only see inevitable of the eyes of leaves but every once in the while you see a combination tree.

In order to get to Milford Sound you must drive through a mile long tunnel called Homer's pass. It's amazing it got built at all (although it did take almost 20 years to build, including a 9 year break during WW2). Most of the workers were depression era men who were required to work to receive some meager federal money. The conditions were rough, as they dealt with flooding, snow, and avalanche. For almost 5 months of every year the sun was hidden behind the mountains. But without these efforts, we would not have been able to enjoy Milford Sound since it is the only road to the area.

We arrived at Milford Sound mid-afternoon for a 2 hour cruise. It was hazy, and rained during most of the trip, but that added an interesting look to the view (very Lord of the Rings). Because of the rain, we got to see several temporary falls on the trip. It was different than what I saw in Norway. As I mentioned above, I think there are more trees here, although I just may have that impression because we drove through the fjords, whereas in Norway we took boats through the fjords. Just like Norway there are tall, thin falls, but here there are also wider falls and multi-layers of falls. Behind the haze, there is a 2nd layer of cliffs higher up that also had waterfalls. Also, these falls are mainly fed by the vast amount of rain and the glaciers, while Norway's is mostly fed by snow melting. Lastly it is not unusual to see dolphins, seals, or penguins at the base of the falls (we saw all except a penguin).

There was one falls called the bridal falls (it is roughly the same heighth and and width as bridal falls in Niagara Falls). In another falls, they referenced it was 3 times the highth of Niagara Falls, and then proceeded to take us into the falls, much like the Maid of the Mist. They definitely seem to be entranced with Niagara Falls back home.

The best way to sum up the day is with a quote from David Henry Thoreau. This was mounted on a sign at The Gorge, our last stop before Milford Sound. After a 15 minute walk through woods, we arrived where a river dropped several feet. The cool part was how the river had sculptured interesting shapes into they rock. The quote was: "the finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time".

Interesting fact day 10: bats are the only land mammal indigenous to NZ (dolphins are also indigenous).