This morning I woke up rather tired, as the sound of the rain smashing on the roof had interrupted my sleeping quite considerably throughout the night.
But, I somehow managed to get myself out of bed and ready, despite this as we were going on a trip to Milford Sound, which was supposed to be “The 8th Wonder of the World” according to Rudyard Kipling, or somebody like that.
As always, the drive was amazing, going up and through the Snow-capped Mountains for most of the 2 hour journey. We stopped at one lookout, and realized that we were actually stood amongst the fog at the top of one of the Mountains!! It was so cool!!
And we were fascinated at the same time by a little, brown Kea, which is a bit like a Mountain Parrot, that was eating its dinner just to the left of where we had parked, totally unbothered by the fact that we were there admiring the view. I did feel sorry for it though, as it was lame with a gammy leg, and had to hop around on one foot, which although it looked amazingly cute, must have been painful for the poor thing.
We had to make sure that we didn’t get too close to it when taking pictures because of that, as we didn’t want to intimidate it, or make it think that we were going to steal his dinner and make him attack us. (It would not be nice to be pecked with one of those beaks!)
At another point, we passed through some crazy ass mountain pass that was built into the rock, where we had to wait for 15 minutes for the lights to change, as only 1 way traffic is allowed through at a time. I think it’s because the tunnel was built at the turn of the last century, so therefore wasn’t designed to hold the weight of modern day traffic, or perhaps it was just because it was a crazy ass mountain pass that just had to be scary!!!!
The thing was about 1200metres long, and had a gradient of 1 in 10, oh, and had no lights in it, apart from some small reflectors stuck on the wall to shine the headlights back at you, and the light from other cars, so it wasn’t the most reassuring tunnel to be driving through! But, we made it through unscathed, only to be stuk behind a crazy mentalist driver with a death-wish who was very unnerving when going around the sharp mountain road bends and swerving into the middle of the road!!! I was quite disappointed that I didn’t catch as much of the scenery in that part as I would have liked, as I was too busy gripping the seat, and watching wide eyed the road ahead, hoping to God that the maniac in front somehow managed to get to wherever he was going without killing us all!!
We did manage to arrive at the sound, unscathed, although I did have serious palm sweat going on, and had to compose myself before setting foot out of the car, before we boarded the boat.
Again, I was dreading the prospect of the 2 hour cruise a little, and had not been made complaicant by the previous non-sicknesses, so skipped breakfast again. (Lucky I did anyway, as even apart from the boat trip, the bloody car trip may have made me reacquaint myself with last nights supper!!)
The boat we had was quite a small one, but it was very full, so we spent most of it on the top deck, being pelted by the wind and rain around us. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best of days to have taken the trip, as we couldn’t see past the mist that was hovering around the tops of the rocks, but, despite the weather and the mist, it was still lovely scenery, with all the waterfalls (Jeez!! Those things get everywhere!!!!) and the trees growing up the rocks, and the Rock formations themselves.
I was rather disappointed that we only actually saw 1 penguin, from a distance, and 3 seals, similarly, but it was still better than seeing none at all I suppose!! The animals were all probably all doing the sensible thing to do, and taking shelter from the horrendous weather instead of bobbing about on the water like we were!!
Miraculously….I still didn’t get sick, even when we were making the pass between the very rough Tasman Sea and the sound, which is a complete shocker!! But Im by no means suspecting that I am cured, because if I think that, Im bound to eat a big ‘ol’ Breakfast next time, and get as sick as a parrot!! But, Im very pleased by it!
I did think that the Sound was lovely, but I must admit, that I wasn’t by any means totally bowled over by it, as some people say they have been. Perhaps it was the weather, or perhaps it is just differing opinions, I don’t know. I would still recommend it, though.
Anyway, Im off to bed, as I absolutely stuffed myself at an Italian resteraunt on the way back to the room and I think I have had a bit of a Carb OD, as I am feeling rather strange at the moment! The fact that Im shattered probably isn’t helping much, either!!