We stayed in Te Anau after Queenstown as it was pretty much the closest town to Milford Sound and the rest of the Southern Fiordland (By the way, I thought Fiords was spelt with a j, like the Scandinavians spell it, but here its spelt with an i). We had heard that Milford Sound was the number one thing to do here, and that kayaking in the Sound was the best way to see it so we booked onto a kayaking trip that allowed us about 4 hours on the water.

We had to leave at about 5.30 am to get to the Sound for about 8.30. A bit of a shock to the system but Sheona delt with it by sleeping all the way! The drive there was really good, with the sunrise peaking over the mountains. It was a shame we couldn't take our time and stop in the valleys. We then met our guide, Tracey, who was to guide us through one of the busiest boating stretches in the World! There were so many planes, helicopters and boats all around, it completely removed all of the serenity from the place. It was much better out on the water through.

The kayaks were proper sea kayaks with a rudder. I don't think ours was set up quite right, or that my legs are different lengths as we never managed to go in a straight line all day! We also managed to go through the most vegetation that was hanging over the water. I said it added to the authenticity of it but Sheona was in hysterics all the way. I think the rest of the tour group thought it was quite funny too. Speaking of which, we had this German guy on our trip with his wife (we think it was his wife, he was wearing a wedding ring, she wasn't... scandal is afoot...). We didn't remember their names, so we called them Bernhart and Bertolli, something like that. He was the most annoying person in the world. He kept wanting to take photos of EVERYTHING. Literally. I know the Asians have a bad photo habit but this was unreal. He was so rude to his wife/lady/mistress as well, always shouting at her on the water whilst he didn't paddle and just kept taking photos. Seriously, you had to see it to believe it. We ended up coming pretty close to this little batchelor pad of fur seals on the cliff face and our guide warned us not to get too close. Not Bernhart and Bertolli though! They went in there with the Bismark (our nickname for their kayak) at full pelt. Bertolli couldn't stop the thing by herself and so they smacked into the rocks right by the seals! I'm sure he got a pretty good view from there!

We stopped for lunch, with Bernhart taking photos of his lady/wife/mistress eating her lunch. I think her patience was wearing thin. After lunch the wind had picked up, and Tracy said that we could sail back by forming a raft with our canoes and then holding a sail up with our paddles. We had to go head-first into the wind and growing waves to be far enough out though. Kayaking in 4-foot swells is fun but bloody hard work! The whole of the kayak was practically under the water, and then the next second the front was 3 foot in the air and came crashing down into the sea. We were both laughing really hard, was sore on our sides by the end! Everytime the kayak was in the air Sheona was shouting "AAAAA" and then wetting herself laughing afterwards. Good fun though. I pulled a short straw and had to hold the strongest part of our sail on the way back into the bay, my arms were killing me. Sheona and the rest of the girls at the front of the raft had to hold the whole thing together. We got some good speed up though, I was impressed!

All of this was happening in the really beautiful scenery of Milford Sound, it was amazing to see such steep cliff faces up every side, with mountains like Mitre Peak only a short distance away. I could see why people loved it so much.

After that we went to the local bar for their Roast Dinner Special and Happy Hour. Cheap beer, wine, roast lamb for Sheona and roast Pork for Ben. :-)