Rainforest Cliffs above Milford Sound

Rainforest Cliffs above Milford Sound is an original illustration set in Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, New Zealand. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is oceanic — mild, wet through the year.

Dark Mitre Peak rises almost directly from steel-blue water inside Milford Sound. Rainforest clings to sheer wet walls, several thin waterfalls stream from high hanging valleys, low cloud catches around the summits, and a small red tour boat supplies scale beneath the cliffs.

Why do waterfalls plunge from forested cliffs straight into this narrow sea inlet?

Successive glaciers carved a deep U-shaped valley below present sea level, and the ocean flooded it after the ice withdrew to form a fiord rather than a river valley. Moist Tasman Sea air is forced upward by the mountains, feeding exceptional rainfall and countless temporary falls that drop from tributary valleys left high above the main trough. The narrow saltwater reach, near-vertical forest and elevated waterfalls all record glaciation plus an extremely wet maritime climate.

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