By Air, By Sea, and By River

There are a few ways to get to Milford Sound from Queenstown. You can drive, take a bus, or fly. Last March, 1.1 meters of rain fell on the South Island in a 48-hour period. That’s more than 42 inches! Many of the roads to Milford Sound were washed out or damaged, so getting there now by road is a challenge. I flew. In a 12-passenger Cessna over some of the most scenic mountains I have ever seen. We flew over glaciers and craggy mountaintops, alpine lakes and waterfalls. As I was looking over the mountains, I started thinking about how fortunate I am to be living this epic journey. About all the experiences I’ve accumulated as I set out to step on all the continents. The gravity of it all settled in, and I started to cry. Grateful, sloppy, messy tears. The kind that make you feel good after you’ve wiped them away.

I pulled myself together by the time we arrived in Milford Sound, and we headed over to the docks to board our boat, which would take us around the narrow, 15-km long bay that feeds into the Tasman Sea. The sunny, cloudless day we were experiencing is rare. This is one of the wettest places on earth. It is a temperate rainforest; one without soil. The cliff faces are covered with trees that cling to the rock; their roots finding cracks to grab hold. They lace their roots with other trees around them, creating a tangled latticework structure. This is good, mostly. Until you get 1.1 meters of rain in 48 hours. Then, one tree lets loose and collects a slide of debris cascading down the slope. There were a number of these “slips” evident along the way.

We saw graceful waterfalls, shiny with rainbows. The captain got us good, saying we could drink from one of the waterfalls. He’d get close, and we need only hold out our cups. He neglected to remind us that the path of water from a waterfall is unpredictable; that a gust of wind could abruptly change its course. We all looked pretty silly, drenched and laughing, with all our cups mostly empty.

After the cruise, we boarded our plane and made the 35-minute flight back to Queenstown. There was still a fair amount of day left, so I decided that I wasn’t quite done with the water. I headed into town and signed up for an adrenaline-junky fix on the jet boats. The boats traverse Shotover Canyon, careening their way through at speeds of up to 90 km per hour, and making abrupt, water-soaked 360-degree turns. I laughed until my belly hurt.

What a day. What an incredible, unforgettable, magical day.