This one is very picture heavy, so I won't bore you with too many words. We kayaked for 3 hours on Milford Sound, and then had a 3 hour boat ride on the same. We were told, repeatedly, that clear days like this on the Sound only happen rarely, so we had pretty good luck with this. Our luck with weather would actually hold for pretty much the rest of our hiking trip, too!
The peak on the left of this last picture is Mitre Peak, named because it looks like a bishop's mitre. We eventually would sail directly past its base. This is most remarkable because it's almost a verticle cliff up most of the side of the mountain--which is more than a mile high. I'll let that sink in.
As we were told, it's not actually a sound. It's a true and honest fjord. Milford Fjord has some strange assonance/consonance going on, though, and who the hell knows what the difference between a sound and a fjord is, anyway? (A sound is a ocean flooded inlet of some sort, wider and deeper than bays, and a fjord is a glacially carved ocean flooded valley. You're welcome.)
The two modes of sunlit Molly: Smiling a lot, or napping.
This is the base of Mitre Peak. Just the top, a mile up, is in clouds.
The boat captain had a lot of fun putting just the bow of the boat into waterfalls to soak the passengers.
SEALS!
Another soaking.
I found a bean bag, and took a nap on deck. Too many pretty views wore me out.
These next few are from the shuttle ride back out of the sound.
Evidently, at one time, the mail carrier for Milford Sound had to bicycle up to that ridge from Te Anau (100 km, plus climbing 500 meters vertically with the bike strapped on his back), rappel down the side you see, bike down the trail (see the picture 2 spots above), and then catch a boat back to Invercargill. Then repeat at least once a month. Best job ever.
We were then dropped off at The Divide, a trail head for a bunch of different trails, including ours. It was late-ish, but we only had 5 or so miles to our hut. Let the hiking begin!
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