Story: Landscapes – overview

Milford Sound is a drowned glacial valley that penetrates over 15 kilometres into the Fiordland mountains. This sketch, looking out to sea from the head of the sound, shows a maze of steep-sided mountains. Milford Sound itself is a valley on the left – but it is not immediately obvious that it leads to the sea. Explorer James Hector drew the scene in 1863, when he was looking for a port in western Otago that linked to a pass over the mountains.