60 pieces · NaturePhoto by Sébastien Goldberg on Unsplash (Unsplash License). Mitre Peak (Rahotu) and the surrounding Fiordland summits mirrored in a tidal pool at Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand.
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Mitre Peak Reflected at Milford Sound
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Mitre Peak Reflected at Milford Sound
Milford Sound is not actually a sound. It is a fiord — a valley gouged out by a glacier and later flooded by the sea — on the south-west coast of New Zealand's South Island, inside Fiordland National Park and the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage area. It runs about fifteen kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea at Dale Point, hemmed the whole way by rock faces that rise twelve hundred metres or more straight out of the water. The sealer John Grono gave it its European name in 1823 after Milford Haven in his native Wales. Its Māori name, Piopiotahi, remembers the piopio, a thrush-like bird now extinct, and since the Ngāi Tahu Treaty settlement of 1998 the fiord has officially carried both names at once.
The pyramid dominating this photograph is Mitre Peak, or Rahotu, which climbs to 1,690 metres with almost sheer drops to the waterline. Captain John Lort Stokes named it for the shape of a bishop's mitre. From the viewpoints most people reach it reads as a single clean spike, but it is really five peaks grouped so tightly that they merge into one silhouette. The weather here is the other half of the story: Milford Sound is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand, with a mean annual rainfall around 6,412 mm, and that rain is what sends dozens of temporary waterfalls down the cliff faces after a downpour. A still, blue, mirror-flat morning like this one is the exception rather than the rule, which is exactly why it is worth sitting with.
As a jigsaw, the reflection is both the gift and the trap. The lower half repeats the upper half, so a piece that looks like it belongs to Mitre Peak may really belong to Mitre Peak upside down — check which way the clouds curl before you commit. Start with the waterline, the hard horizontal band of dark gravel and stranded weed across the middle of the frame, because it splits the picture cleanly in two and gives every other piece a side to live on. Then build Mitre Peak itself, where the snow, the bare grey rock and the bush line give you strong edges to follow. Save the sky: it is a wide, even blue broken only by soft cumulus, and the quickest way through it is to sort by how the blue deepens toward the top of the frame. The rippled sand in the foreground, with its fan of tiny channels and the one mossy boulder, is the most distinctive texture in the whole image and the easiest place to finish.
How to play
- Tap Play Mitre Peak Reflected at Milford Sound puzzle to open the puzzle board, then choose your piece count and difficulty.
- Drag pieces from the tray onto the board and snap them into place until the full image is complete. Works with mouse on desktop and touch on mobile.
- Use the Preview button on the play screen to peek at the full reference image whenever you need a hint.
- When you finish, check your solve time on the completion screen and share it with friends to see who can beat your record.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Milford Sound really a sound?
- No. A sound is a river valley drowned by the sea, while Milford Sound was carved by a glacier and then flooded — which makes it a fiord. The misnomer is an accident of early European naming that simply stuck. New Zealand's geographic naming has kept it, so the fiord sits in Fiordland National Park while still being called a sound.
- How tall is Mitre Peak, and why is it that shape?
- Mitre Peak rises to 1,690 metres and drops almost vertically to the water. Captain John Lort Stokes of HMS Acheron named it because its outline reminded him of the mitre worn by Christian bishops. Despite that single-point appearance, it is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks that line up into one silhouette when seen from the usual viewpoints along the shore.
- Why does Milford Sound have so many waterfalls?
- Rain. With a mean annual rainfall of about 6,412 mm it is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world, and as much as 250 mm can fall in a single day. Because the walls of the fiord are near-vertical, that water has nowhere to go but down the rock face, so a heavy downpour conjures dozens of temporary waterfalls — some of them running close to a thousand metres — that vanish again once the weather clears. Only a few, such as Stirling and Lady Bowen, flow all year.
- What does the name Piopiotahi mean?
- It refers to the piopio, a thrush-like New Zealand bird that is now extinct, with tahi meaning 'one' in te reo Māori. Following the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 the fiord was officially gazetted as Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, one of roughly ninety places given a dual name in that settlement to recognise its significance to both Māori and Pākehā New Zealanders.