We made our way, at 5:00 am, to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound and went on the Milford Mariner, our boat for the 3 hour cruise. 

Along the the way we stopped for scenic lookouts and toilet breaks to break up the 5 hour bus ride. 

Fiordland National Park is NZ's most remote wilderness and features 14 fiords and 2 "Great Walks" - the Milford and Kepler Tracks. We didn't have time to do either. The route through Fiordland to the sea is world-renowned and described by Rudyard Kipling as "the eighth wonder of the world". It's hard to describe the beauty of the area as we enter dense forests, pass gorgeous lakes, and river flats.
We boarded our boat, the Milford Mariner, and cruised the entire length of the fiord, taking in waterfalls galore along the verdant shores, all the way to the Tasman Sea before we returned to take the long bus ride back to Queensland. 

Milford Sound is incorrectly named because it is not a sound but a fiord. Basically, a sound is created by rivers while a fiord is created by glaciers. Milford Sound is a 16 km fiord with a famous landmark called Mitre Peak, a pyramid shaped mountain rising 1,692 m straight from the deep fiord. Waterfalls abound and are up to 160 meters high. 
 
I know this is repetitive but the scenery is just spectacular. There are not enough verbs to describe it. So, I'm going to let you just enjoy the pictures. 

To pass the time we played some games. Here's a riddle for you: the man who makes it doesn't need it. The man who buys it doesn't use it. The man who uses it doesn't see or feel it. What is it?

I've made light of the Aussies language so it's only fair if I comment on NZ talk. They sound similar but there are some variations. They don't really have the "ya" at the end of words like he ya for here etc. I find the Aussie pronounciation quite cute but that's me. A common phrase in NZ is "How you going?" Which means "Hi, how are you doing?" The answer commonly heard is "Sweet as, bro!" In Canadian that would be "Great, dude!"  

 I'm so excited: I DID IT! I got 11 people to dance!! The only problem is it was only until 9:00 pm. But I feel I accomplished quite the feat. We had a lot of fun. The restaurant doesn't start dancing until 11:00 pm but I decided to get it going a bit earlier. So after dinner I just got up and danced around for a few minutes until Donna felt sorry for me and joined in. Then it was just a matter of time before the others joined. Unfortunately, Ian, who NEVER apparently dances asked the DJ to play the Macaraina and the chicken dance so I had to suffer through them but we did have a lot of fun. We also did the hokey pokey and the boat dance. But, you know what - they danced so I'm ecstatic. They all said they want to do it again tomorrow night. 

It it was a good day.…