All things water in Milford Sound

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On the drive to Milford Sound for our overnight boat cruise, we were both thinking and talking about the skydives we had done that morning in Queenstown and how we were both so happy we had done them, as well as taking in the great scenery around us. About 2 hours after leaving QT we stopped in a town called Te Anau (which is halfway between there and Milford Sound) for some lunch and to see the main attraction of this town - the huge blue lake. Now I know we have seen a lot of lakes here and you may think we are getting bored of them, but these lakes are incredible - huge and so blue, most of the time with a shingle shore line so they look like a beach and they are just gorgeous, so that is where we had lunch (pasta and sauce) whilst sitting in the sunshine. The weather has been so good here (apart from the odd hour of rain, usually when we are driving) we have been lucky to be able to stop on drives like this and enjoy the outdoors, although from Nov 1st it will be summer here so we came at a good time as it would have been hard to park up and cook outside etc if the weather was bad.

Anyway after a rest and lunch we carried on the journey to Milford Sound which was another couple of hours away. The road to MS became really windy as we were going up, down and round mountains and in the winter they say you would need snow chains on your vehicle to do this route, although if the snow is bad the roads would be closed. MS is in an area called Fiordland on the lower west coats of NZ - it can be hard to access and is very sparse and not very populated - we only passed a few cars on the whole journey- so we felt like the only ones in the place at times. Just outside Milford Sound we stopped at a sign that said ‘mirror lakes’ which means that the lakes there are usually so blue they mirror the scenery, but as it was a bit windy they weren’t that blue so we carried on to MS, passing through one of the only tunnels we have seen on this whole trip, cutting through the snow capped mountains which was a bit scary as there were lots of signs saying ‘avalanche area’ around! Luckily as it is not winter there wasn’t too much snow so no avalanches.

We got to the visitor terminal around 4pm where we would board our boat in MS and checked in. The Milford Sounds are a huge serene lake, which joins the Tasman sea. Our boat was called the Milford Wanderer and the sleeping arrangements were cabins of 4 bunk beds, but as it was only half full we had our own cabin which was great as they were pretty small so would have been tight for 4 people we think! It was a really cool boat and as we had never slept on one it was a novelty to us. All our food was included on the boat and soon after we set sail we were served curried pumpkin soup and told of the activities we could choose to take part in that evening. There were three options; the most popular being sea kayaking which we both decided to go for. We anchored up in a small cove, and were kitted out in life jackets before jumping into the single kayak’s, we were then given brief instructions on how to use the ore’s and how to avoid the water dripping on to us, before setting off. Now as you all know, Vic’s is not the most fitness orientated person you are ever likely to come across and to no ones surprise when Scott turned around after the group (of around 20 people) had rowed about 1000m, Vic’s was still going around in circles in her kayak, on her own, covered in water and declaring she wanted to go back - haha! However, as has been the theme for her this trip, she persisted and finally got the hang of it before speeding over and crashing into everyone else like a big bowling ball knocking over pins. We spent about 45 minutes on the water, viewing various things along the coast lines before heading back onto the boat.
Now Scott doesn’t need too much encouragement in doing anything out of the ordinary/stupid, so when one of the crew asked if anyone was brave enough to jump of the top deck of the boat into the 7 degree sea, Vic’s wasn’t the least bit shocked when Scott was the only one to raise his hand. So with his swim shorts on (in about 3 seconds) and shivering at the prospect, he climbed the stairs and took a huge running jump. The initial hitting of the water wasn’t too bad, but within about 5 seconds everything started to seize up. He managed to drag himself out and just as he started to dry off the crew encouraged him that the second time you jump is a lot better so off he went again. He finally decided that this was enough and went for a hot shower, before getting ready for dinner.

For dinner the chef had cooked a huge pork roast complete with proper mash potato, gravy, veg and apple sauce - it was really good and the prefect meal to have to warm us up as it was a cold night outside the boat. We shared a bottle of wine and had warm chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert which was delicious before playing some games (Scott taught Vic how to play chequers which she now loves although she has only won one game out of about 10) and uploading our photos from the day to our laptop. After showering we went to bed in our cosy cabin and slept really well, as the boat had anchored for the night so didn’t move and the water was really calm.

In the morning when we were woken up at 7am it was cloudy at first but it soon cleared which was good as we could appreciate the beauty of the nature around us. The crew said it usually rains on the sounds so again we were really lucky with the weather. It was so peaceful on the sounds, apart from the dull sound of the boat engine you couldn't hear anything, and the mountains that surrounded us made us feel we were the only boat on the sounds, even though we weren't. The chef cooked breakfast (choice of cereal, yoghurt and fruit or a fry up - guess what we chose?!) and we sailed back towards where we had departed from the day befoee, spotting some rare yellow eye penguins and fur seals on the way back and arriving at just after 9.30am. The overnight cruise was really good and a great way to see the sounds- much better than just the 2 hour boat cruise, and Scott got this for Vic as an early birthday present, as well as the skydive- definitely amazing presents to remember! We then started the 4hr drive back to Queenstown (having to stop for 15 minutes to let loads of cows cross the road!) where we would try our first ‘Fergburger’ burgers, which we had read at home are famous for their huge size in NZ!

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Comments

[Farsh]

What can I say
What can I say to you two. I am running out of superlatives for you guys. Just stunning!!!!!!!! We are so proud of you both. xxxxx