Milford Sound (Mitre Peak)

밀퍼드 사운드

Milford Sound, also called Piopiotahi, is a famous fiord in Fiordland National Park in the southwest of New Zealand's South Island. Despite its name, it is a fiord, a valley carved by glaciers, not a sound, which would be made by a river. It runs about 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea, with sheer cliffs and waterfalls on both sides. Between 550,000 and 1 million people visit each year, many on boat tours that last one to two hours.

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At a glance

Country: New Zealand
Location: Fiordland, New Zealand
Height: 1,692 m

Quick answers

Where is Milford Sound (Mitre Peak)?

Milford Sound (Mitre Peak) is in Fiordland, New Zealand.

How tall is Milford Sound (Mitre Peak)?

Milford Sound (Mitre Peak) is about 1,692 m tall.

A dramatic fiord of sheer cliffs and waterfalls, dominated by the peak of Mitre Peak.

Its most famous feature is Mitre Peak, which rises 1,692 metres straight from the water. The area is part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. The writer Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world.

Rain, cliffs and waterfalls

Milford Sound is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand, getting about 6,400 millimetres of rain a year. Heavy rain creates many temporary waterfalls on the cliffs. Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls flow all year.

Names and nature

Its Māori name, Piopiotahi, is linked to an extinct bird, the piopio. It became an official dual name in 1998. The English name comes from Captain John Grono, who named it Milford Haven in 1812 after his Welsh hometown. At the Underwater Observatory in Harrison's Cove, visitors can see black coral growing only about 10 metres below the surface.

A freshwater lid and deep-sea life

So much rain falls here that the top of the fiord is a layer of fresh water, tinted by tannins from the rainforest. It filters the sunlight, so animals that normally live deep, such as black coral, grow as shallow as 10 metres. Milford Sound is home to seals, the southernmost wild population of bottlenose dolphins, and increasingly humpback and southern right whales, and penguins also live there. After heavy rain, parts of the rainforest can slip off the steep cliffs in tree avalanches, and you can see the forest regrowing in places along the fiord.

Fun facts

Writer Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world.
Mitre Peak rises 1,692 metres above the water.
Milford Sound is a fiord, not a sound.
It gets around 6,400 millimetres of rain every year.
Visitors can see black coral from an underwater observatory about 10 metres down.