Milford Sound (1st March)

Mitre Peak, Milford Sound


This morning, along with a girl I had been sharing with, we headed off down to Milford Sound, me for the cruise and her for a night in the motel there before a full day kayaking the next day, the only flaw being that she doesn’t actually like kayaking but she had been told the cruises were all fully booked! The joy of the internet huh?
I still haven’t tried my hand at kayaking here yet, I was kinda keen to do it on Milford Sound, the only flaw in my plan is that it’s been raining since we woke up this morning! I guess you get wet anyway though right??






Our boat






The drive to Milford was beautiful with lots to see and lots of stopping off on the way, if only it wasn’t raining huh?! We did stop off at one point though, at the Chasm, for a walk which was lovely although unfortunately three coaches of Japanese tourists also stopped off at exactly the same time!
At Milford I had to battle my way through a thick fog of sandflies before reaching the cruise check in area but they do assure you that as soon as you leave land you leave the sandflies behind, I can’t wait and I also can’t wait to get on board our boat and finally see the wonderful Milford Sound.



A very spectacular waterfall





As soon as they said boarding I was there, although somehow I still managed to be the third person arriving in our four person cabin so ended up with the top bunk. Our cabin was fantastic though, I’m on the backpackers version of the cruise which doesn’t particularly involve a whole host of backpackers but does involve a whole boat full of bunk bed type cabins each cabin having 4 beds.






Milford Sound








Once everyone one was on board we headed off on our cruise into and along the Sound, although we were then told it wasn’t officially a Sound but instead was a fiord. We had only been going around an hour before the crew said we were going to be stopping shortly and that we then had the option to kayak, explore the area by tender craft or swim (!).
Although I had made the decision previously that I wanted to kayak, due to it still raining I decided I would explore by tender craft. We had a couple of mins to go and change and sort ourselves out and in true Emma style I still wasn’t completely totally sure what I wanted to do, my roommates all told me they were kayaking so I thought.......... and thought and thought!
In the end I decided on the tender craft, mmm right! So, by the time I had made it back on to deck for my relaxed trip out on a motorised boat to explore the sounds it had already left!! Leaving me the only option of kayaking! It was great fun though, even in the rain, I’ve canoed in the past, I’m sure we all have (right?), but I was younger then, a whole lot younger. We kayaked for around 2 hours or so having a look at some of the sights along the way and it was lovely and a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

Mitre Peak


Once back onboard it was a quick change out of damp knickers before dinner. I was one of the last on board the boat and was therefore one of the last to dinner however I managed to find a space with, what I thought was, a couple of Americans. It turned out they were part of an extended family of eight onboard which over the course of the evening I was then introduced to all of them. Lots of socialising and a couple of drinks (!) managed to extend from 7pm to a VERY late night before the last of the die-hards (myself included, although I regretted it in the morning) decided to call it a night with just a few hours sleep before up again at 6.30 am!!