Land of mist and water

Well I made it out in time for my 6.30am pick up to go to Milford Sound. Our guide Will turned up right on time in the Fiordland experiences mini bus and we hit the road. It turned out that there would be 8 of us going out with him that day, so a nice sized group (apparently they often take 16 but one of the guides had injured himself so only half size group my day which as nice). We were a happy group with 3 brits (inc me), 3 Americans, a Kiwi and a Canadian plus of course our guide.

Will did warn us that it was going to be a rainy day and he wasn't kidding. As we started getting closer to Milford Sound everything started to get wetter. His view was that this was the best kind of weather to see that Sound in as you get fewer tourists (we were the only kayakers our and there were not many tour boats) and you get 100s of waterfalls. He wasn't kidding about that, as the rain continued more and more waterfalls started to appear, as the mountains around the Sound are pure rock there is no where for the water to go except down the side in really quite spectacular fashion.

Once we arrived in Milford, Will checked with several boats further out to make sure that no nasty winds were heading our way, but the Fiord was flat and calm where we were and the prognosis further out was that it was also calm. He couldn't understand why the other kayaking company were cancelling their trip (maybe they are scared of getting wet!), but just called them wimps. We headed to the cabin where we were given many layers to wear over our swimsuits, and boy was I grateful for them. We had thermals, covered by a wet vest thing, covered by a fleece, covered by a safety jacket, covered by a rain coat, finished off with two hats (one woolly and one to keep the sand flies off - I hate those damn insects, they love the taste of me though!).

Looking truly gorgeous, we headed to the kayaks to set them up. They were doubles and I was sharing with Gloria from America (real sweetheart, originally from New York City but studying geology in Minnesota, so used to the cold). After a quick training session we hit the water around 10.30am for a good 4 hours on the water. By this point it was well and truly raining, and the fiord looked amazing in the mist. It really did feel kind of spiritual out there! Us looking mildly ridiculous, kayaking over a flat fiord surrounded by huge mountains, trees, waterfalls and mist. At some points the clouds were so low that we got very limited visibility and it was like kayaking through a magical grey wet world.

However, there were moments where the mists lifted and we got the most amazing views of the fiord and the amazing peaks around it. We saw more of my friends, the seals. This is where all the adolescent males hang out until they are mature enough to venture out and try to pull female seals. They were doing their thing, lounging around on the rocks, looking very comfortable. I managed to get some good photos of them though, so that was cool.

I really recommend Milford Sound when it is raining, as you would go along and find waterfall after waterfall, where when it is dry there are no where near as many. When we headed out, some near where we set off where quite small, by the time we got back in they were gushing with water, with mist rising below them. It was awesome.

I have to say though I was quite tired after all the paddling in the rain and was glad to get back in to my warm clothes and finally eat my lunch (it was too wet to eat it out on the water as originally planned). The journey back was cool with Will stopping at various waterfalls and look out points so that we could visit and take more pictures (my camera needed some coaxing as it was claiming in be out of battery but it didn't let me down and managed to keep going so that I got all the shots that I wanted).

At one of the waterfalls we stopped in a car park and found a Kea (a big green parrot native to New Zealand) chewing on some poor person's car roof. I managed to get a great photo of it though, so all was not lost. When we got back from visiting the waterfall it had started on a new car, gnawing on the side of the door. They have pretty evil beaks, so I wasn't about to try and persuade it to stop its run of vandalism. We saw someone pull in with a really nice new car and just wanted to tell them to make a run for it, it just wasn't worth the damage that this bird would inflict on their vehicle. Apparently the Kea's do this because people kept feeding them and it completely threw off their usual diet pattern, so now they go after anything, including cars (seems keen on the rubber bits).

By the time I got back to the hostel it was 6.30pm and I could hardly keep my eyes open (we had a noisy snorer in our dorm, I affectionately refer to as Miss Piggy so I had naff all sleep the night before) and I collapsed on my top bunk (easier said than done). I woke up at 11pm to take out contact lenses and put on PJs before passing out cold until 8am the next morning (actually felt like 9am as the clocks went back so that gave me an extra hour of sleep - which I obviously needed).

So I was refreshed this morning when I loaded up my now very noisy car (the brakes aren't sounding very healthy but I only need to go 17km tomorrow to the airport and I can live with the noise and the people giving me funny looks everytime I have to stop the car - it really is the most grating sound), picked up the 2 German girls that I was giving a lift from the hostel and headed to Queenstown. It was nice to have people to chat to as I drove so the journey felt really short. I dropped them off at their hostel (them laughing at my noisy brake situation, but hell so was I by this point) and headed over to mine. This hostel is lovely, called Bumbles and run by a lovely couple with a cute baby that likes me, which is a good sign apparently.

Ironically I am feeling activitied out and I am in activity central. I my do something tomorrow morning before I have to head to the airport and fly to Auckland. If I can find something here that does not involve jumping off anything. After my Glacier trip it is obvious that I don't do heights (although bizarrely am fine driving round bends with sheer drops on the side, but that is probably cos I am focusing on the road and on-coming traffic rather than the thought of hurtling down for miles). There is loads of Lord of the Rings related stuff round here too, even more so than the rest of New Zealand (which is saying something), maybe I will give in and just do a Middle Earth trip or something naff like that. Who knows!

Anyway, sure that the next update will be from Auckland. I am really looking forward to an evening with Sam and Tom tomorrow. It will be nice to have a proper conversation with friends. I have met some lovely people on my travels but every conversation starts with "how long have you been in NZ", "how much longer do you have", "where are you from" and "where have you visited and where are you going next".. all of those in no particular order. Reminds me of the first year at university ("what A levels did you do", "did you have a GAP year", "where are you from"...) .

Hope that all is well with everyone