When I started blogging about some of my travels, I probably didn’t realise how much the places I love and what I have learned from them would reveal about me. Many of my Monday travel posts focus on cities and places of human history and culture. But every now and then I do really appreciate getting away to somewhere completely natural, untouched by human hands, and basking in the beauty of creation.

As an Australian, it is kind of embarrassing that I had not visited New Zealand (beyond Auckland) until this month. But the breathtaking beauty I saw in just a few days in a small section of the South Island, apparently not even anywhere near its best time of year, has certainly inspired me to return to our stunning neighbour. One well known place of such awe inspiring beauty was Milford Sound.

What did I love about Milford Sound?

Technically a fjord rather than a sound because it was formed by a glacier, the geological history of a place like this is certainly interesting.

But it is hearing the still tranquility of the water

tasting the crispness of the air

feeling the mistiness of the clouds

reaching out to the delicacy of the waterfalls

and experiencing the majesty of the snow capped peaks

that calls for silence, almost reverence, at their beauty

and invites genuine wonder and awe.

What did I learn from Milford Sound?

I’m pretty sure my photos don’t capture what captivated me, and I know I have seen much more impressive shots from others. The experience is so much more than what is seen and thus what can be shown in two dimensions.

All my senses were engaged, a theme I have been exploring over the last couple of years through my studies and through our practices as a gathered church community.

Milford Sound is yet another reminder to be present in the moment and to seek to engage with and make sense of the world with every part of whom I am.

And it is for me another pointer to a Creator who made every dimension of all there is and invites me to respond to Him with every dimension of all I am.