Tuesday Photo — Milford Sound Morning

On May 17th, when I decided to post a photo a day (fallen off a bit), I wrote about the road to Milford Sound in the post “Dawn Road”. It is one of the world’s great road trips, and takes about two hours from the town of Te Anau, if you don’t stop too often for photographs.  Difficult.  At the end of this unspoilt and magnificent drive you descend to Milford Sound through mountains which rise impossibly steeply on either side to a sight which, well, takes the breath away. Early morning is best, like the photo above, when the water is still and glasslike. But the solitude amidst the natural splendour you’ve enjoyed thus far is rudely shattered by the sudden proximity of tour buses and hundreds of tourists preparing for their cruise of the sound in one of the many boats on offer — it is New Zealand’s most famous attraction, after all. However, this doesn’t really detract as the experience of just being in such an incredible place more than makes up for the sudden inconvenience of early morning queuing with many humans for one’s berth on a boat. The mountain in the centre is called Mitre Peak. I’ll post more photos from this trip in due course, but have started with this one as it is one of my most popular on other forums, like Flickr and 500px.