The wettest place on earth
Travel Location: Milford-Sound,New-Zealand
So you think we have bad weather in the UK? This place has the most rainfall recorded anywhere on the globe. Annual rainfall is measured in metres (about 7 a year) not millimetres! The Soulvan sprang a leak whilst we were staying here – bad timing – but no real flooding, thank goodness. It was also the most cold we have been in NZ. It’s a good job we found some possum fur socks to keep us warm, which are now produced as part a new industry here to keep the number of possums under control (a pest introduced from Australia apparently).
There are so many sandflies in this place and they bite. Even with campfire roaring, jeans tucked into our possum socks, and kagools zipped up to our noses, they hovered around continually trying to bite or land on us to the point that we had to retreat once more into Soulvan, even though it was a beautiful evening outside. Apparently the seals don’t bask on the rocks here because of the wee b*****ds!!
Sound Bites
Another potential hazard is the Kea bird, a large mountain parrott. They kind of guard the entrance to the Homer tunnel, which is a 2km downhill dark,damp hole through the mountainside that took 18 years to dig (finished in 1954) and provides access to Milford Sound. Keas love shiny chewy things especially those attached to cars. Take a look at these ones captured on You Tube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdV292e6ll (not our video but we saw similar).
All of that sounds a bit negative, but in fact Milford Sound is an incredible fiord of stunning natural beauty. The day we visited was damp with low clouds hanging over the peaks, but this only added to the atmosphere and drama of the scenery that surrounded us. We took a boat trip out into the sound to explore at close hand. There are a couple of huge waterfalls that the skipper got us underneath and all around vertical grey peaks disappeared into the misty sky above, with mercury grey water below. Rather than describe anymore we will try to add some pictures when we get a chance to download them.
