We drove to the car park and had a hot drink then got everything ready for our boat trip (thermals, cameras, chocolate etc). We had opted to go with a company with a smaller boat, on a 2 hour trip (photo of boarding boat).
The trip was along Milford Sound to the ocean and back.
This area is rainforest and we were amazed at the size and number of trees clinging to the sides of near-vertical slopes over 1000m high that drop into the water on all sides of you. This area averages 9m of rainfall a year which explains how green everything is and the number of waterfalls. Although the water is salty sea water, there is so much rain that the top 3m of the water is fresh water! There was a stark reminder of the scale of what we were looking at when another boat passed on the opposite side of the water, about 2km from us, and looked like it was a toy against the rocky walls that went up and kept going up. The other three photos are views from the boat.
We saw bottle-nosed dolphins near the boat but otherwise no wildlife. On the way back we had opted to stop off at Milford Deep, an underwater observatory. You go 10m down a spiral staircase and all around you are fish, starfish, sea slugs, anemones etc. A small motor launch came to return us to the wharf.
We had lunch in the motorhome and then started the return drive to Te Anau, which took 2 hours. We settled into the campsite and walked into town. At 6pm we went to see a 20-minute film at the cinema called “Ata Whenua” (or Shadowland). This is 5 years worth of filming from helicopters in the Fordland National Park, nearly all of which is inaccessible. It is set to music and is stunning. The boys and I saw it when we were here last November, and eventhough this was their second viewing they sat absolutely still and silent (a rare event!). It is a tiny cinema with enormous seats, and was built specifically to show this film!
We had dinner out in a restaurant and then returned to the campsite.
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