Milford Sound by Air!

Another day of superlatives!  I’ve just plain run out of them!  We had an awesome day!  Last night, we stayed up and did a little star gazing.  Can’t get enough of the Southern Cross and Orion (upside down).  This morning, our activities didn’t start until noon, so we slept in, cooked a wonderful breakfast and enjoyed the morning.  We headed out to the airport for our flight to Milford Sound.  After calling earlier and confirming the trip was still on and not cancelled because of weather, we got to the airport and met a lovely couple from Austria that were sharing our plane.  The woman working at the desk at the airport has a nephew that is a math major in Dunedin.  She gave us his contact info because we’ll be in the town where he lives tomorrow.  I think we’ll call him up and John can maybe get together with him. 

It was hot in Wanaka today with a lot of big puffy clouds that in Colorado would probably mean thunderstorms.  However, we headed out anyway and there were lots of big puffy clouds hanging around the mountains and glaciers.  But that was OK, because we still were able to see some incredible scenery.  We flew to the Sound (which is technically a fiord and not a sound according to our boat captain) and landed.  This was amazing!  We had to fly past the harbor into the canyon, make a sharp turn and descend to the airport.  Unloading and getting on a bus, we got to our boat for the sound tour.  I feel lucky to have been on this boat.  It wasn’t huge, there weren’t many people on it, and the captain was very skilled – getting closer to rocks with the wind and the current than I would have ever dared.  We saw beautiful scenery.  It’s kind of surreal when you’ve seen so many pictures of a place and then you are actually there!  Words can not describe!  The boat trip was exciting and we saw many seals.  We also went under a waterfall where John was baptized.  Everyone was getting back under cover at the waterfall, but poor John kind of got stuck out a little longer and was SOAKED!!  We spent a few hours on the boat and then headed back to the airport.  The clouds were really socking in now, and the pilot said we’d try and head back through a pass.  If the clouds were too bad, we’d have to try and get back another way.  He managed to get us back that way, around clouds and rain.  We saw where the Milford Track goes, and I also was able to see a few kilometers of the Routeburn Track.  Pretty impressive – I’ll put one of those on my bucket list – or maybe both!  The bumpiest part of the flight was coming back into Wanaka.  With all the clouds, I thought we’d really be in for a rough ride, but surprisingly, we did fine.   

This part of New Zealand is amazing.  The scenery is so variable and there are nooks and crannies everywhere.  If you look at a map, you can’t really get a sense of this place.  I’m looking forward to a bungy jump tomorrow and off to Te Anau!

Pictures - hard to decide today!