8-10 January – Magnificant Milford Sound

8 January

Well….no rest for the wicked, so after only a few hours sleep, we were back outside watching the dawn and waiting for our transport to Milford Sound with a local diving company. It was a beautiful drive out to the Sound, although we struggled to stay awake to enjoy it!

When we arrived, we left Jo at the Milford Sound Lodge as she’d sadly hurt her back on the Routeburn Track and didn’t think lugging tanks around was a particularly wise idea. Matt and I then headed onto the dock and onto the dive boat. There were only 5 of us diving, so it didn’t take long for us to get onboard and speed out into the Sound on the boat. The journey to the first dive site was stunning – it was so early that there weren’t many other boats out and the water was still and calm. We were joined for part of the journey by a pod of dusky dophins which was a nice surprise.

The first dive site was St Anne’s Point – just inside the Sound where it meets the Tasman sea. Milford Sound is an amazing place to dive because it was a really pronounced thermocline which makes for some interesting life. This is due to a layer of tannin-stained fresh water, which lies on top of the warmer salt water, filtering out much of the light. Therefore, corals and fish that would normally be found at depth live in much shallower water underneath the thermocline.

Our first dive was absolutely beautiful – it was pretty cold, but there was so much to see, I didn’t really notice it. There was so many fish – including plenty of wrasse that followed us all and kept pecking at our masks. And the rocks were covered in loads of starfish and sea urchins.

In between dives we warmed up a bit with some soup and had a look at some New Zealand fur seals sunning themselves on some rocks in the Sound. Our second dive was further into the Sound where the thermocline is much more defined. It was so surreal diving through it – as you descended through the first few metres of water, it was bright and clear. Then, suddenly, at about 5m depth, the water becomes totally oily and its almost impossible to see the people you are diving with. As quickly as it starts, you are beneath it, and the visibility goes back up (thank goodness!).

All through the second dive, we saw amazing black coral fans (we didn’t take this picture – found it on the web and wanted to show you what the coral looked like!) as well us ugly jock stewart fish, blue cod and crayfish.

On the way back into the dock, we stopped on a tiny beach and trekked (in our wet suits and booties) through some woods to a beautiful clearing with some pools and a huge waterfall. We played around in the water and watched some completely bizarre tiny fish that were swimming up the falls!

Once back at the docks we met up with Jo who’d been busy planning our afternoon activity - a much more leisurely cruise around the Sound with no wetsuits in sight.

After a very late and long lunch, we headed out on the cruise boat to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine on the beautiful sound. We enjoyed getting close to the huge waterfalls that tumbled down the massive cliffs surrounding the Sound. The highlight of the trip was yet another dolphin encounter – but one of the best yet. Several pods of dolphins joined us as we sped across the Sound, playing in the wake of the boat and jumping at the bow – we were completely surrounded for what felt like an eternity. Matt and Jo exhausted their digital camera cards with the dolphin displays!

With massive grins on our faces, we spent a lovely evening in the only restaurant/bar in Milford Sound, sampling more lovely New Zealand wine, before retiring to our dorm at the lodge

9 January

Bit of a lie in today – we weren’t being picked up until 8.30am – what luxury!! Today was the last activity day of our trip – and we saved something pretty spectacular till last. We spent the day sea kayaking in Milford Sound.

Matt and I were in a boat together (with me in the bag controlling our direction!), and Jo buddied up with a really nice American girl. We were in a small group of four boats with a great guide. We started off getting comfortable in the boats in the calm waters around the fishing dock - but then we headed out into more open water. It was a pretty windy day and so the seas were quite rough. It was pretty hard work staying close together and I must admit, I found the waves pretty scary and was kind of looking forward to returning to the shore.

We followed the coastline closely for an hour or so before our guide decided it was getting a bit too choppy so we should head back in. Then we did something that none of us have done on kayaks before - we created a sailing raft! We got our four boats together, and actually opened up a massive sale and let the wind take us back into more sheltered water. We raced another raft made up of a different kayaking group out on the water, and took only about 10 minutes to get back to where we started - it was brilliant fun.

We sailed right onto a sheltered beach where we stopped for a delicious lunch and cup of tea before getting back out on the water to explore some still, beautiful and completely green creeks. This was much more up my street than the choppy sea kayaking and I thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful afternoon.

All too soon, it was time to get off the water. It was quite a tough paddle to get back to our starting point - and I knew we'd all be aching later that day, but we raced back to the docks and helped the guys pack up the boats and kit before driving back to Te Anau. It was a fun drive during which we stopped plenty of times to look at views and visit a stunning chasm.

In Te Anau, we had a quick meal in a bar, before getting on an ancient tour bus back to Queenstown. We joined a group who'd been on the bus all day and none of them looked particularly happy about it! Thankfully the incredibly dull driver/guide stopped talking and put on a movie for us to watch during the journey.

Finally we made it back to Queenstown where we checked into our motel room (which felt like luxury after the bunkhouse) and cracked open our last bottle of New Zealand wine - a delicious sparkling wine (which I might try and source for our wedding this year).

10 January

We had a quiet morning packing up our bags before checking out and hitting Queenstown. Jo took us to a cool diner for breakfast before she headed off to an internet café to get on with some job applications (UK deadlines for doctor jobs fast approaching) and to visit a physiotherapist about her back. Matt and I enjoyed a couple of hours of shopping – buying plenty of outdoor gear to take home and a few last minute gifts/souvenirs.

Then it was time to go to the tiny airport for our flight back to Auckland. The weather was beautifully clear so we had a stunning flight with the captain pointing out tourist attractions as we went. We had a great view of Mount Cook and the glaciers - and it was fun to see the route we had taken down the South Island from the air!

Back in Auckland we headed back to Jo's brother's house to catch up with her family and get ourselves ready for our final departure from New Zealand the next day. We took Jo out for a delicious last supper at the beach in St Helliers before going through all our photographs and looking back on a fantatic trip.

Pamela