The rain was bucketing down which created some pretty awesome waterfalls along the side of the road. Really hard taking pictures in the rain though! Taking in some very damp lookouts on the way I reached Milford Sound. Unfortunately the diving trips were finished for the winter so I booked myself on a cruise. I had wanted to visit the underwater observatory but it is out in the sound and I was on the last cruise of the day so no later one to pick me up. The cruise company said that if I came back the following day they would put me on a cruise for free - bonus! The boat set off into the sound and presented us with spectacular views of hundreds of cascading waterfalls. There are only 4 permanent water falls in the sounds but it seemed like there was water falling everywhere! We tried to go right out into the Tasman Sea but the captain decided it was too rough - probably good for me! On the way back we sailed right up to one of the waterfalls so I donned my coat and went out front. We were warned it may get a bit damp and we weren't disappointed!

The following day the sun was quite literally shinning on me as I got to experience milford in beautiful sunshine - a fabulous contrast to the previous day. There were not quite so many waterfalls but was beautiful all the same and I felt very lucky to have experienced it in both conditions. The underwater observatory gets you up close to the underwater life which is quire different in Milford to other sea water situations. This is due to the fresh water layer sitting on-top of salt water. The fresh water is heavily dyed with tannins making it very dark at shallow depths so you can see creatures that normally live in much deeper waters. After reaching dry land I set off on the drive back to Queenstown.