19/04/09

I woke up when Rich's alarm went off at 6 and he drove us back in to Te Anau so he could use the net to find out the football scores. I laid in bed for ages, eventually getting up to go to the loo in the shop again. We shopped around Fresh Choice for a few bits for the next few days and then Rich drove us towards Milford Sound. I fell asleep on the way, I have no idea how because it was the bumpiest ride ever. When we arrived we walked over to the info site, when we left a bus with Shuttle Bus written on the side pulled up outside so we hopped on. It only took 1 minute to get to the pier, it must be the most boring job in the world, the bloke drives back and forth on the smallest route known to man. It only took us 2 mintues to walk back from the pier to the camper. Such a pointless shuttle bus.

We had lunch at the camper and then boarded the boat at about 1500 for our Milford Sound Cruise. The clouds were hovering around the middle of the mountains all around. After a while on the boat they started to clear. We saw some huge waterfalls, but as it wasn't raining we only saw the huge permenant ones, apparently the entire place is filled with thousands of them when it rains. The boat pulled up right at a waterfall and a few passengers got completely soaked. As we were sailing out towards the Tasman Sea we looked behind us and saw a huge double rainbow, it was the brightest and most defined I think I've ever seen. We were taken out to the Tasman Sea and then back again. On the way back we stopped off at some rocks and got to see some more NZ Fur Seals, one of them seemed to perform a kind of dance for us. We then bumped in to a pod of dolphins, 3 leaped out of the water really high at once, it looked awesome. During the trip they offered us free tea and coffee, so we made full use of it. I ended up having 3 cups of really strong coffee, and consequently had to go to the loo on the boat, then again when we got off the boat and then again when we stopped at The Chasm. On the way back I really did wonder how I managed to sleep on the way, we were stopped one of the only traffic lights in the country which stays red for 10 - 15 minutes at a time before changing, and then drove through a really long bumpy tunnel. While we were waiting at the lights we saw some Kea's, they were much bigger than I thought they were, I initially thought they were Wekas. Laura fed them some of her rice cakes and one of them hopped up on to the bonnet, Rich had to use the windscreen wipers to get rid of it.

We drove on a bit longer and found somewhere we could pay $5 each to park up for the night. We didn't bother paying as no one was about. Laura cooked a spag bol with elbow pasta and when Helen was asked if she was tired she said 'I'm not tired...I'm just exhausted'.