The land of the lost
Fiordland, located in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand, is an area untouched by technology with no cellphone signal or internet for miles. Nights are so dark you can’t see the hand in front of your face. The Milky Way is easily seen, and it’s so quiet, you can practically hear your heart beating. When walking through the many trails, large ancient-looking tree ferns filter the sun through their outstretched fronds. Questionable mushrooms pop up sporadically and the forest floor is oddly devoid of crawling insects. You have entered the land of the lost.
Mirror Lakes is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. A picture-perfect reflection of the mountains in the incredibly clear water is a magical sight. Ducklings speed across the glassy surface chasing insects and black eels slither effortlessly in their underwater garden. Nature’s minerals colour this lake so beautifully, it makes you want to envelop yourself in it and drink it in until you’re full.
The road to Milford Sound has been touted as one of the top 10 drives in the world. I can say without hesitation that I’ve never been this impressed before. The sheer magnitude of the mountains and the ever-changing weather brings this area alive. The views were delicious as the clouds looked like meringue, forming soft peaks on the treetops far above. Cotton-candy clouds lazily blew through at varying altitudes, dusting their sugar on to this sweet land.
The squawking of kea from dark, moss-covered trees helped wake the lazy land below. They look as if they’ve stepped right out of a palaeontology book, with eons of experience embedded behind their intelligent eyes. Flying in a group to investigate the tourists, the heavy-bodied birds are obsessed with biting off any exposed weather stripping on cars.
Continuing on the windy road to Milford Sound, one definitely wants to be the passenger and not the driver. With hundreds of shades of green and more fern species than you ever thought possible, sensory overload is imminent. You can’t take a bad picture here, nature just won’t let you.
Milford Sound hasn’t yet become crowded at 9:15 in the morning and for that, we are fortunate. We board our small boat and set off over calm waters seeing high waterfalls and seal colonies basking in the sun. Ever-changing views are created by following along the rocky, mountainous walls. The animals that live here are blessed; possibly taking for granted that this IS the place to be.
If there is such a thing as love and peace in this world, this place stores it in abundance. Perfectly rugged and beautiful, there is an aura here that you don’t encounter often in your lifetime, if ever.
It’s hard to not be moved by this amazing locale and even harder to put into words the feeling one walks away with. I will never forget that some of the finest hours of my life were spent here.