Fun Facts

• Milford Sound receives 20-30 feet of rain a year, making one of the wettest inhabited places on Earth.

• Called a sound, it is actually a Fjord!

• Milford Sound’s dark water layer forms when tannin-stained freshwater from heavy rainfall floats on top of the seawater, blocking sunlight and creating deep-sea–like conditions that let creatures such as black coral—normally found far below the ocean surface—thrive at just 10 meters deep.

• The famous writer Rudyard Kipling once called Milford Sound the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

• According to Maori tradition, the dramatic landscapes of Fiordland were carved by the demigod Tu-te-raki-whanoa.