We left the Lakefront Apartments at about 5am this morning. The lack of sleep and long drives were beginning to take their toll but the excitement of a day of shooting at Milford Sound made the dusty feeling a lot more tolerable. It is a 2hr drive from Te Anu to the sound...the day had begun.
In 2008, Milford Sound was voted the world's best travel destination! It is named after Milford Haven in Wales, while the Cleddau River which flows into the sound is also named for its Welsh namesake. The Māori named the sound Piopiotahi after the thrush-like pippin bird, now extinct. Piopiotahi means "a single piopio", harking back to the legend of Maui trying to win immortality for mankind—when Maui died in the attempt, a piopio was said to have flown here in mourning.
It wasn't our plan to make the Sound for sunrise and we stopped at a few places along route 94 that weren't worth it so we pushed on. In the end we were a little late for sunrise but it was still magnificent.
This was to be our base for the day.