Today, we were heading to Milford Sound. We signed up for an overnight cruise with Real Journey on the Wanderer. As we had heard that there were many stops along the way that we would want to stop at to take pictures, we gave ourselves ample time to make the drive from Queenstown.
Now we realize why South Island always gets a better rap than the North Island even though both have a lot to offer. South Island is extremely scenic with lush green landscaping, rolling hills, clear lakes, and snow-capped mountains. At one point, we were stopping every 2-3 miles to take pictures. Some cool stops along the way were the Mirror Lakes, which reflected the mountains and sky clearly, and the Chasm, a huge hole in the ground carved out by a gushing river. It definitely looked like Middle Earth. I kept expecting to see little hobbit huts along the way.
After a brief lunch and bathroom stop at Te Anau, we made it to Milford Sound, which is not really a sound at all. It's a fiord. One is created by water (sound) and the other is created by glaciers (fiord). We checked in with Real Journey and boarded the Wanderer. Real Journey has two boats, one, the Mariner, is the higher-end boat where you get
private cabins and bathrooms. The Wanderer is the "cheaper cousin" with quad shared bunk beds and co-ed bathrooms. Although we wanted to do the private option, at this point in the trip, we really are more like backpackers and decided to "rough it" with the Wanderer. Luckily for us, the boat was not crowded so we got a quad to ourselves. The boat holds 61 passengers and there were only 31 of us. It was still pretty packed, so it's hard to imagine how they could actually fit twice as many people on the boat. We boarded around 4:30 pm. They greeted us with orientation and some warm mushroom and capsicum (pepper) soup. It was a perfect start to the cruise as it was pretty cold outside.
The overnight cruise was really nice because by this time of day you pretty much have the sound to yourself. It was so serene and it was nice not having other boats cruising around disrupting the view. After sailing out to this bay called Anita Bay, we had the option of kayaking, swimming or boarding a guided tender to see the sites. As we wanted to actually get somewhere, we decided against the kayak, and as it was about 50 degrees in the water, there was no way in heck that we were going to jump in that water, so we decided on the guided tender tour.
We were told that we had lucked out because the bay could at times be very rough with waves of up to 7 meters. When we went, there was barely a ripple in the water, although one girl still got really seasick. We lucked out on the tender and got to see some Fiordland crested penguins. They're
pretty tall, over 1 foot tall with these bright yellow eyebrows. We saw a few on the shore and one baby one swimming in the water. We were told that Milford Sound is full of jade, of the boninite variety. This one captain spent years mining for this jade to sell to merchants in HK. When he arrived in HK, turns out that the merchants wanted neophrite jade not boninite jade cause neophrite is a darker jade. Apparently, the captain was so angry, he dumped the entire lot of jade into HK harbour and it all still sits at the bottom of the harbour. Apparently, some divers went down into the harbour and found some of the jade down there. Not in good condition, but still there.
When we got back to the boat, some crazy girls decided to jump into the water. They literally jumped right back out after jumping in, it was that cold. Crazy kids.
After everyone got back to the boat, we were served dinner. Dinner consisted of a tasty roast pork with apple sauce, roasted potatoes, some stewed cabbage and mixed vegetables and a fresh salad. It was all very, very good. Eric got seconds. Dessert was a pavlova with raspberry coulis. Basically, it was whipped egg whites with a lot of sugar. Naturally, we ate it up.
After dinner, we were told to go outside because
there were some dolphins sighted. We ran out and got to see at least 10 dolphins swimming and jumping around. They were following the wave of the boats for awhile. It was pretty neat to see. The crew said they only get about one dolphin sighting a week so we were in luck.We then got treated to a sunset on the mountains. It was really pretty, casting a pink haze over the mountain top. Definitely a nice ending to a good sightseeing day. We ended the night playing scrabble (I kicked his booty) and uploading pictures on the computer. Then it was time to try some co-ed showering and to hop into our bunk beds for a good nights sleep.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409863946295422273&authkey=Gv1sRgCLSQo-qvuuPxrQE&feat=email
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