Day 36 Milford Sound to Queenstown

Day 36 Milford Sound to Queenstown

Another exhausting day….We awoke at 6:30 for our onboard breakfast and then joined our fellow passengers on deck for a cruise out of Milford Sound onto the rolling Tasman Sea. The ship’s nature guide regaled us with stories of explorers (Captain Cook sailed right by the entrance to Milford Sound twice without ever noticing it…), Maoris (There is a legend that the biting sandflies – the only creatures to spoil the absolute perfection of the place were sent by the gods to ensure that people didn’t stand and stare but moved on with their work…), geology and wildlife.  We saw seabirds such as shearwaters and black-backed gulls and a large group of New Zealand fur seals – the young males – playing and sunning themselves on the rocks.  The young males are kicked out of the colony and stay in the relative safety of Milford Sound until maturity, when they return to the colony to fight for their place in the hierarchy.  We saw one seal climb several metres straight up a slippery vertical rock – and another tiny pup try and try again to climb up a much smaller crag….very cute, poor thing….still a bit of growing to do…..

We cruised back up the sound…fewer waterfalls today, but patches of blue sky between the misty peaks…under the waterfall again and smoothly into dock where Nicole was waiting for us to drive us back up the Milford Highway.

We passed the ‘Chasm’ waterfall again and drove through thick fog to the Homer Tunnel. Once through the tunnel, the sky suddenly cleared to brilliant sunshine – and we photographed many of the same places of yesterday, now sparkling in the sun.  We stopped again at Macpherson Glacier….and then at Falls Creek – where Nicole decided to jump off the falls….”It has to be done,” she said – we were a tad worried for her as we do need her for the rest of the trip…but she had done it many times as a child and was quite determined.  Several other buses stopped to view the falls, so she had something of an audience as she jumped in, swam to the side and safely climbed out….It was a bit colder than she remembered though…she said it knocked the breath out of her……

We stopped at ‘The Divide’ to make the trek to Key Summit - - - a 3 hour walk including a climb of 300 metres for fantastic views….another of the more challenging walks of the trip…and then took the hour-long nature walk at the summit, stopping for lunch halfway around.  We saw a beautiful moss garden – and a rare Kaka bird…and ran into another Adventure South group at the top to compare notes…..

The rest of the drive to Queenstown – through Te Anau, Mossburn, Garston and Kingston passed uneventfully….though the sun streaming through the windows made it much hotter and seem much longer than the trip out yesterday…..

Nicole gave us a ‘turkey tour’ of the very busy town…..so much civilisation after the wilderness of the last few days….and took us to our accommodation for the next two nights.  It’s quite a ways out of town….we were told a 15 minute walk….but I think at least double that and halfway up a mountain (thank goodness there’s a shuttle bus).  Tomorrow is a free day in Queenstown to sample some of the touristy delights…..it is supposed to be our chance to bungy jump, go whitewater rafting, try river surfing or sky diving….but I think we are going to have a rest day instead…This trip has been a bit full on….and I have more than a little laundry to do!