Showoffs

To celebrate Valentines Day, Stuart and I took a cruise around spectacular Milford Sound. To save money we opted for the ‘Early Bird Special’, which departed Milford Wharf at 8:55am. During the hour drive from our campsite to Milford we noticed the sky getting darker and the clouds descending but we kept our spirits up, knowing whatever the weather it was going to be a sight to behold. We boarded our boat - Mitre Peak Cruises – where we were given complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits, before heading up to the open aired viewing platform at the top of the ship. The great thing about getting up so early and catching the first boat meant that there were very few people aboard so we could pick where we wanted to sit and enjoy the view uninterrupted.
 
We left the pier with a toot of the horn and cruised calmly into the fjord. The cruise was extremely enjoyable with loads of wildlife to see and fantastic scenery to view. On the cruise we saw seals playing in the water and hauling themselves onto the rocks to bath in the sunshine, we saw loads of seabirds and at the mouth of the fjord we even saw a pod of dolphins swimming close to shore. The fjord itself was a site to behold with towering almost vertical rock faces plunging from the sea to thousands of metres into the air, making all within sight look minuscule in size. On part of our cruise we passed a cruise ship which had come in to circle around the fjord briefly before heading back out to sea and in comparison to the scenery the cruise ship looked toy-like. Our captain kept a running commentary of interesting facts and figures about Milford Sound, such as the fact that Milford Sound was incorrectly labeled a sound by early explorers instead of a fjord but the name Milford Sound has stuck to this day. To rectify this New Zealand officials decided to label the whole area ‘Fiordland’ but accidentally spelt ‘fjord’ incorrectly.  
 

After our cruise we headed back into fiordland where we took a relaxing day enjoying the beautiful landscape of New Zealand’s largest national park. For dinner we had procured two ginormous steaks, which we devoured in immense enjoyment.