Day Nine - The Fiordlands

We had an early morning departure so we had to be awake at around 5 am to get ready to be down for the bus, because we had been warned by our B&B keeper that they would absolutely leave us if we were late. We got up and dressed and downstairs by 5:30 which gave us enough time to eat a cinnamon roll at our B&B and get to our car to drive into town.

We parked and walked down to the bus stop and got checked in with plenty of time. It was a bit chilly out so we stayed inside until it was time to load up in the bus to Milford Sound. We had a few people nearly miss the departure time, so we left a few minutes later.

It was a long drive to Milford Sound and a long drive back, but the bus was comfy and I brought a book to read. We drove along the Milford Road and pulled off the road for a few photo opportunities (and a pit stop at Te Anau). The scenery was unbelievable and it was only raining a little bit all the way there. We stopped at the Chasm and saw the massive waterfall coming out of the glacial rock face and then did a mad dash for the harbor to catch our boat into the fiord (it’s spelled this way in New Zealand, not ‘fjord’…?)

It had started really raining by the time we got on board and the mist had descended into the fjord so it really looked like Middle Earth. We got a nice buffet lunch and got settled at a table to eat. A little while after we got underway we were in a legitimate storm and it was nearly a full white out of surf and rain.

We hugged the shore a bit and a little while later it cleared and we were able to get some amazing photos of the fjord. We made our turn and just as we started back, we picked up three dolphins, that decided to play at the bow of the boat. They stayed with us long enough that pretty much everyone was able to go outside (in the pouring rain) to watch them, and I got a great video of them swimming and jumping in the surf. I had brought my poncho so mom and I took turns getting to take a look.

Dolphins!

We docked about 2:55, and we had been warned that the bus was going to leave at 3:05. So we hauled all the way to the bus and everyone got back to their seats for us to leave on time to get back to Queenstown.

I read the entire rest of The Bone Shard Daughter by the time we got back to Te Anau. So I’ll leave that behind at The Embassy for someone else to enjoy (and lighten my suitcase). It was an interesting concept for a book, I just don’t know that I need to read the rest of the series…

We kept driving in the hopes of getting back to Queenstown a bit sooner than originally planned, and only stopped for a quick bathroom pit stop before we returned to town. They dropped us off a few blocks away from the car and we had to walk back through town (in the rain) to get to the Irish pub for dinner. We had a steak and ale pie for dinner, picked up the car, and then swung by Anita’s for some gelato for dessert!

We got back to the B&B and got warmed up after being out in the cold and rainy weather for most of the day.