Today we went to Milford Sound, by coach then took a cruise on a boat. We got very wet, but the rain meant we got to see loads of waterfalls which was really cool. Most of them are temporary, disappearing an hour or two after it stops raining. The clouds are really low so you can't see the tops of the mountains. A lot of the waterfalls get caught by the strong winds coming in off the Tasman Sea and they actually disappear into vapour, which is pretty amazing. The boat went close to some of the waterfalls, so that standing outside we got drenched by spray and blinded.

At the sea end of the Sound (technically a fjord) it gets pretty rough. It was hard to walk around. The rain was extremely heavy from the moment the boat left the dock. It stopped at one point, then started again a few minutes later. It was like somebody turning on and off a power shower. Also the really strong winds would pick up spray and you could actually see a gust coming, just before you got a face full of salty water.

Despite the rain and wind, the air was surprisingly warm. This was the main indication that we weren't in Wales, the namesake of the sound (named after Milford Haven, apparently). We saw some juvenile seals lazing on some rocks. Apparently there are also whales, dolphins, sharks and penguins around, but we only saw ducks, gulls, a few other sea birds and the seals. The cruise lasted a bit over 2 hours. Towards the end we even saw a bit of blue sky!

The drive there and back is also very scenic. There's hundreds of waterfalls cascading down the sheer slopes, almost vertical and very resistent to erosion. The clouds are so low they are blending into the waterfalls. There is temperate rainforest in places but also lots of scrub that used to be agricultural land apparently.

I apologise for the lack of photos on this blog and also the lack of updates lately. Internet access has been quite hard to find and my phone, which I am writing this post on while offline, won't upload photos to the blog. I've taken thousands of photos already on my camera but just haven't had the time or the computer access to sort them out.