Milford Sound

Friday, May 12:
Peter rented a 12-person van (Hommy, aka, shoilet!) for the weekend and we headed out of Dunedin at around 2pm. Our group included Robin (my neighbor), Peter, David, Alexis, Eric (all from the 480 complex), as well as Sean(who goes to PENN with Peter) and Rachel. Rachy + myself = the loudest people known to man. We drove 3 1/2 hours to Te Anau, a scenic drive beginning with rolling green hills, and ending in huge mountains and glaciers. We checked into Lakefront Backpackers, which had a majestic overlook of the Southern Alps and the lake from the porch outside our rooms. We headed into the small town, which is surrounded in mountains, and watched Ata Whenua which was a beautiful 30-min film showing the natural beauty of Fiordland (also called Shadowland) in all its seasons. Afterwards, we headed to The Ranch for dinner, and spent the rest of the evening on the porch enjoying the view of the mountains and playing cards in our room. (B.S.-PB and shoilet, 'Moewm' game)

Saturday, May 13:
We had breakfast at the hostel, walked around Lake Te Anau, and visited the bird refuge, where all the birds instinctively flocked towards Sean, haha. My favourite were the keas (inquisitive mountain parrots) and takahes.

We drove two hours to Milford on a winding road through the mountains, stopping along the way at the Mirror Lakes and various other viewpoints. We then boarded the 'Milford Mariner' which sleeps 60 people. Unfortunately, for the first day of the cruise, it was a bit cloudy so we couldn't see the mountains very clearly, but it gave Milford a very mysterious aura. After boating around for a while and spotting some seals, we kayaked around part of the sound. (single kayaks) It was my first time kayaking, and I loved every second of it. It started raining around dinner time and didn't stop until the morning, which was cool b/c the waterfalls were huge the next day. We had a delectable dinner and dessert, I love NZ's pavlova! We then watched a slideshow about Fiordland, everyone played cards, and I read the Da Vinci Code.
Then it was off to bed! (the corridors of the ship reminded me of the movie Titanic)

Sunday, May 14:
We woke up at 6:45am, and ate breakfast as we watched the sun come up over the mountains. The most exciting news was that it was a clear day, which is hard to come by in Fiordland!! We sailed out to the Tasman Sea where we could see the moon on one side of us and the sun rising on the other. It was soooo much more rocky out in the sea compared to the calm sound. (which technically is a fiord since it came from a river and not a glacier) Anyways, the rest of the morning we spent sailing around the sound, taking in the surreal scenery. We boated really close to Sterling Falls, as well as passing a ton of other waterfalls. I decided that Milford Sound is quite different than Doubtful Sound, even though they're both in Fiordland. Milford is a bit steeper, and has more rocky mountains and cliffs, while Doubtful is a much longer sound with more crevices and islands, and less rocky. Both good, but different.

After we arrived back at the wharf, we found out that the weather was supposed to get bad and we needed chains for our tires. However, since we didn't have chains and couldn't buy them either, we left before we potentially would be snowed in. (we later found out that it snowed a ton!) We stopped again in Te Anau on the way home for lunch, and spent the roadtrip playing stupid car games. I gave the roadtrip an A+

The next morning, David and I were looking at the pictures from our trip, and I was overwhelmed thinking about my experience thus far in NZ. I never imagined that a place could be so beautiful. Much of NZ is untouched by civilization and that's hard to come by that these days. The remoteness, serenity and sparse population in certain areas is what makes this place so special to me.