Today was an early start, we had to leave the house at 7am! The bonus to getting up early was watching the beautiful sunrise as we left the town of Te Anau and headed toward Milford Sound. It was clear skies the first hour of the drive and the second hour it started to drizzle and then eventually started raining. Milford is one of the wettest places in the world so we were prepared! As Kevin navigated the winding and steep roads we watched the changes in the terrain go from prairies and woods that looked somewhat close to the Rockies, to rainforest covered mountains and sheer rock faces as we neared the fjord.

We went through a single lane, 1.2 km tunnel to get to our destination…luckily for us this tunnel is monitored by a stop light! Since we booked a morning tour our boat was not fully loaded so we had plenty of room to look around from both inside and the top deck. The top deck was only partially covered though so it was tight when the rain really started! The fjord was beautiful even in the fog and rain. First we went down the left side of the fjord stopping to look at some of the cliffs where the captain told us about the different types of minerals that were in the mountains (iron, copper, etc.) and how we could actually see some of it from the boat. Then we made our way to the Tasman Sea where the waves got much bigger, which of course Liam loved! On the way back we went down the other side of the fjord and saw multiple waterfalls, and they were even able to put the nose of the boat underneath one! It was amazing how much wind the waterfall created! Next we saw some young fur seals basking on some rocks, swimming and playing. It was really neat, and Liam learned a new animal noise for seals!

On our drive back we decided to take a rainy walk on the Chasm path which was only about 20 minutes round trip. It was a huge waterfall where the water had carved holes into the side of the mountain with the force of the water and tiny rocks. Many of the holes seemed perfectly smooth, and they were so deep! It was really amazing and beautiful! Definitely worth the walk in the rain! Once we got out of the mountains we stopped at Mirror Lake since it had stopped raining. It was a nice walk down a boardwalk to a couple of smaller lakes that reflected the nearby mountains. It wasn't quite still so they weren't perfect mirrors but Liam loved walking along the boardwalk, so the quick 15 minute walk took us a little longer!

When we got back to the house we took some time to relax and Liam and Kevin played in the yard. We cooked up some dinner and are packing our bags again because tomorrow we head out to Stewart Island for two nights. We can't take our van with us and are limited on the amount of luggage we take, so we are trying to downsize while still taking all the groceries we need…not an easy task for a group of 7!