[New Zealand] Chapter LX: In which Milford Sound becomes outrageously long

Our primary intention in travelling to the Fiordland region (the south-western part of the south island) was to take a cruise along the world-famous Milford Sound (actually a fiord (i.e. created by a glacier), not a sound (i.e. created by a river)). As it turned out, the two-hour cruise itself was the least attractive part of our two-day journey there. While the fiord was undeniably beautiful, once the initial splendour had sunk in, the monotony of the cliffside scenery,

occasionally broken by a waterfall or an albatross or a sea lion, made the cruise somewhat less interesting than we had expected.

The road leading to Milford Sound, on the other hand, was no less beautiful and quite a bit more diverse, with lakes, valleys, mountains, creeks, beaches, waterfalls, forests, grasslands, islets, and chasms all along the way, not to mention clouds of all shapes and altitudes.

But surely the highlight of the day was our visit to the Milford Underwater Observatory, where we descended (via a 60-step spiral staircase) a dozen metres underwater, to look out upon a marine world of rare black corals (which are actually white) and the wide range of sea-life around it (although the photographs don't do justice to it, because of the dimness and the tinted windows).

Accommodations:
- Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn, Manapouri (1 night; rude, expensive and incompetent)
- The Lumsden Hotel, Lumsden (1 night; ok)

Photo captions: (a-u) along the road to and from Milford Sound; (v-ff) from the Milford Sound cruise; (gg-ll) a little of the sea-life seen at the Milford Underwater Observatory