Stirling Falls is one of the great punctuation marks of Milford Sound, plunging from the steep rainforest wall into the fiord below. It is high enough to look delicate from a distance, then suddenly immense when a cruise boat noses close and the spray starts drifting across the deck.
The falls are fed by rain and snowmelt, so the mood changes quickly with the weather. On dry days they stand out as one of the main permanent waterfalls in the sound; after heavy rain they become part of a whole theatre of temporary streams pouring off the cliffs.