Today is an early start to venture south and across to the Fjordland National Park and to cruise The Milford Sounds. Now this is the No1 thing to do in NZ and we uhmmed and arrghed over whether to take 3 days out of our itinerary to drive south for this '8th wonder of the world, however we were talked into taking 'the best' of the coach excursions from Queenstown - a 4 hour coach trip, 2 1/2 hour cruise and 4 hour return trip! Will it be worth it....After the late night we rise in time, sort packed lunch and tidy Bruce and are ready and waiting for our 7am collection from site. A little while later we are sat in the 'bullet coach' a special bus built specifically for this alpine / nearly Arctic road, the seats are angled towards the window, the windows are huge and it has a glass roof therefore not a bad seat in the house. 2 hours later we stop at the town of Te Anu the last stop before the Sounds and a place to grab breakfast.... A pie obviously! We then start the jaw dropping scenic ride to the boat, the reason for the glass roof becoming obvious, a stop off for photos and luckily we see the national bird The Kea, this bird took a liking to Louise!
We board the boat with the impending Mitre Peak looming over us, this is a mountain rising straight up through the sea ( see pics). Now technically this is not a sound it's a fjord and therefore named wrong, this is a waterway created by glacial movement with a u shaped valley not a sound created by river flow with a v shaped bottom. ( hope that you are less confused). Now today is a ' nice day' usually it's raining in these parts so we are lucky to be able to view from the decks. Wrapped up, we spend the next hour outside, watching the impending cliff faces and wildlife...seals spotted. We start heading out to the Tasman sea and it is suggested we go inside, Louise suggests it's time for the lunch break...... As I start unwrapping the sandwiches the boat starts on rough seas and I do not have sea legs... Louise does, she spends the next 10 minutes still watching and I am green and lying on my back.... Lunch had to wait! Back in the fjord and calmer waters we then head back, Louise then spots a penguin ( there is nothing wrong with her eyesight!) we head towards coast and spend the next 10minutes watching the Fjordland penguin playing in their natural enviroment, now this is not a given on this tour so we are overwhelmed with happiness. We make our way back and finally we are back in Queenstown, not really wanting to get ready to leave.