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When people ask me what day it is, I am really not kidding when I deny any knowledge of the month, time, date, or day. I usually get the year right.
What a nice sleep in! Lakeview/Steamer's in Te Anau may get the shady award for not having the hot water turned on in the backpacker area, but having a single is so so nice. I think I have the whole arm to myself! With newly clean laundry this day was looking up.
I had a leisurely breakfast of muesli (cereal) and fruit yogurt, and a muffin. Not on of the title.
At 11 am I was waiting outside reception for Eco Tours to whisk me away for $99 (like half the summer price) to Milford Sound. Also waiting was a North Palmerston (North Island near Wellington) forester going ice camping/tramping and just needing a ride to the Track head. Have fun buddy.
Max the crazy bus driver/tour guide/external monologuist picked us up about an hour late, and took us 100m down the street to the bird park. We were able to see pukeha (?) and some other native birds that are hard to find in
the wild. No kiwis, they're nocturnal. He regaled us with a bunch of cool facts and stories that I can't remember! Except for Charlie Brown, a mountain parrot (not a kea), who was abandoned at the refuge by owners who realized wild animals are not pets. Poor Charlie is imprinted so he wanted to hang out with a bunch of tourists rather than his own species.
It was a lively 2 hour drive to Milford Sound. We had a few photo stops in the mist, mostly for frightening gushing waterfalls a few feet from the bus, and swing bridges. Max was very funny, playing Johnny Cash and Maori singers and even the Dire Straits when he needed a break.
We were the last boat out from the Milford Terminal at 3:15. And if Milford Sound is remote, I wonder what Doubtful Sound is! The boat held 60, but our group only had 20 so there was plenty of room to roam. They had free tea and coffee, and Max brought in biscuits (cookies) and muffins and fruit, without the magickal mushrooms he had teased us with on the bus. (He also tried to hook up the 10 single
women on the tour with his buddy Barry who owns a remote sheep farm outside Te Anau, even going so far as to pull the bus over. He also at this point indicated where they filme the LOTR sequence where Frodo is fleeing the Black Riders. I have given up on organized LOTR tours since all the bus drivers/tour guides/other passengers are constantly pointing them out as we travel. And honestly, every mountain/river/rock could have been in the movies as far as I am concerned!)
It was foggy and misty on the Sound (actually a fjord, being carved by glaciers and not a river mouth), but beautiful like everywhere else in this country. The beeches on the cliffs and sheer rock faces leach tannol into the water whic makes it black and very reflective, just like at Mirror Lakes Inland. Add to that the tidal seawater, and it layers to turn melted emerald adn seafoam. When the sun broke through, the water turned glacial blue. Just stunning.
I stayed on the upper deck most of the time, just enjoying being on a boat. Even if it didn't have sails.
We motored past tons of waterfalls in the
drizzle, out past the light house into the Tasman Sea, and watched the waves crash against the entrance to the Sound. On the way back, a pod of bottle nosed dolphins jumped and breached and waved their tails at us. I think they were mating, but it made for fun wildlife viewing! Since we were the only boat out, the captain let her drift for about 15 minutes with the pod. He also drifted in close to two fur seals sleeping way up on the rocks, and under a waterfall! I went inside to save my camera. We saw some shearwaters too, lots of gulls. I think I saw a sea lion on a rock, and later it swam up to our boat.
The 2 hours flew by, and then it was back on the bus as it got dark. Max was mostly silent as we drove back through the World Heritage Site and the National Parks. Most people were coming from Queensland (another 2 hours back) so Max dropped them at The Ranch restaurant while he dropped me at my backpackers. I needed to finish up my pasta supplies😊
The other guests were cooking as well, I
met a bunch of Austrians and some Spaniards. They decided to watch Sled Dogs which makes me cry, so I went to bed early! In my single! YAY!!!
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