New Zealand is trying to kiss and make nice! I think it overheard us complain about the unusual rain once or twice and wanted to make a better impression. If that's the case, it definitely succeeded!

Jeff already mentioned the amount of rain we've seen since arriving in New Zealand, especially on the south island, so as we headed to Milford Sound (known to be very wet), we tried not to get our hopes up. However, out of our three day stay, it only rained one day (not bad considering they see something like 250 days of rain a year). Not only did it not rain for 2 days, we had gorgeous blue skies without a cloud in sight the day we cruised the sound. That's practically unheard of but it gets better…!

The cruise we chose for Milford Sound was actually an overnight cruise. The afternoon we left, we got an eyeful of beautiful scenery cruising through the fjord and out to the Tasman Sea. The walls of the fjord were draped with more waterfalls than I've ever seen in one place (thank you rain!). As it was pretty windy that day, some of the smaller waterfalls disappeared half-way down the cliff or turned into beautiful curtains of mist. A few even flowed up instead of down!!! To add to the stunning setting we spotted a number of fur seals hauled out on the rocks and a couple of dolphins swam by the boat for a few brief moments.

As if all that weren't enough, I had heard that whales occasionally visit the waters around Milford Sound. Since we were robbed of our whale watching excursion in Kaikoura, I prayed and prayed and prayed that night that we could spot a whale the next day. When we went up on deck in the morning, the wind was even stronger than the day before. The captain informed us that the kayaking excursion was cancelled (bummer!), but they were going to send out the tenders to visit a penguin colony in the secluded cove where we had anchored for the night. This seemed like a pretty good consolation prize but turned out to be pure gold instead.

We were in the tender for no more than a minute or two when we heard a spout. I turned to look just in time to see a graceful arching back dipping into the water…a humpback whale!!! Our skipper radioed the ship and the naturalist on the other tender but nobody believed us because none of the crew had EVER seen a whale come into the cove. To confirm we weren't crazy, the whale surfaced at least 8 more times. I was so happy I could have cried (thank God for answered prayers!). After the whale went on its way, we headed over to the shore to find the penguins. We saw a pair of fjordland crested penguins, too cute!

Back on the ship, we headed for the harbor, but the wind was so strong we weren't allowed to enter. We were stuck outside the harbor for 2 hours waiting for the winds to die down. You might be thinking this was bad news, but it wasn't! While we waited, countless numbers of dolphins came by for our viewing enjoyment (thank you wind!) There were even several playful calves that jumped clear out of the water! At this point, I thought I might have died and gone to heaven, haha.

Needless to say, New Zealand and its crazy weather has won a special place in my heart!

~Stefanie