March 18--Waterfall Day

Like all magnificent things, it's very simple.  --Natalie Babbitt

    Another early start took us over the mountains to Milford Sound, which is a fjord, not a sound. We learned that a fjord is created by glaciers and a sound by a river. It seems that for every waterfall we saw, there was an even more awesome one around the next bend. We did a deep-woods walk at The Chasm, where there were many smaller falls coming off of a good size stream:

    I learned a lot about avalanches. Our bus driver, Andrew, said that the road we used is often closed in winter due to avalanches. This confused me since the mountains are not near the road. What closes the road is the amount of debris that the snow pulls down with it, plus the avalanche creates incredibly dangerous high winds. 

    We started the morning in rain and heavy clouds, but by the time we reached Milford Sound it had cleared, and we were quite lucky to be able to see the top of Mitre Peak, highest on the South Island:

    We cruised for two hours on the fjord, enjoying the sunshine and amazing scenery. Waterfalls ranged from pencil-thin so that you could barely see water moving to the big gushers:

    It was a long bus ride back to Queenstown. We don't have to get on a bus again for almost 22 hours! We can sleep in!

        Leta