The Waterfalls That Only Exist When It Rains

Travel Onion · 2:19

It rains at Milford Sound on about half the days of the year — and when it does, hundreds of waterfalls pour down cliffs that were dry the morning before. Then the rain stops, and within hours they're gone. It isn't actually a sound: sounds are cut by rivers, and this was carved by glaciers, which makes it a fiord — with Mitre Peak rising almost 1,700 metres straight out of the water. In the Ngāi Tahu story, the god Tū-te-raki-whānoa carved the whole coast with his adze and made Piopiotahi last, and best; it was so beautiful that Hine-nui-te-pō let loose the sandflies so nobody would want to stay forever. Up to nine metres of rain a year runs off the forest stained like tea and floats on the sea — blocking so much light that deep-sea black coral grows just 10 metres down. Save this one for the trip you actually take. Follow for more places worth the trip.