Stumbling out of Wendy this morning I was immediately hit by a big gust of wind, whistling down the sound and to our lodge camp, near a river. The wind was very warm though, and I donned some leggings (sand fly protection and a tshirt) ready for our cruise.
The boat we boarded was a small (65 persons) boat, named the 'Mitre Peak' after one of the peaks in Milford sound, which is shaped like a Bishop's hat, or 'Mitre'. The cruise begin nice and gently, with an exploration into Deep Water Basin to look at the local fishing boats. This done, I was pleased when we turned away from Milford and out into the sound. The sheer rock surfaces to either side were naturally vegetated with trees, which, given thy had little to cling on to, were surprisingly mature.
The frontal weather system coming in gave some super wind and waves once we rounded a headland - holding on was key at points. The swell was particularly large and I was secretly thankful that the captain had pre-decided that we wouldn't be able to make it out to the lighthouse today. I'd just seen a boat turn 250 m or so ahead of us and it was rolling something ridiculous so I was happy to turn back after a 'taste' of the swell.
On the return journey we were given brilliant close-up views of some seals basking on the rocks. We were then dipped into the second-highest waterfall in the region, leaving me nicely sprayed although not completely sodden. Also exciting to see were the waterfalls which weren't even making it to sea-level - the wind was blowing them away before they got there! The wind also blew away someone's cap, with a fellow passenger making a heroic leap to rescue it. The cap victim then decided the best course of action would be to put the cap back on, which I wasn't convinced was sensible.
Back on dry land, we drove out of Milford and through the still-crude-but-now-soggy Homer Tunnel. After The Divide, the rain drove itself in and stuck with us all the way back to Te Anau. Here we lunched (we're trying to use up food now, so it was an eclectic but tasty meal) and then had a mooch around the shops in Te Anau, purchasing two flying disks (which were not disk shaped) and then playing with them in the park. A bit of tree climbing and shaking was required at one point, which I don't think would have gone down well with the Department of Consevation...
Back at our lakeside camp, the sun began to peak through the clouds, and we used the peaceful evening to catch up on the blog and do some research for tomorrow's activities in Queenstown. For once we have access to free wifi (an hour on each device - we, it turns out, have five devices with us!) which is a rarity here.
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