Waking up in a Fjord!

This is why I have not posted since Thursday. We have had a 2 day excursion to Milford Sound in Fjordland National Park.

We spent all day travelling there yesterday and saw some wonderful sights see backblip, had a trip.out into the Sound and explored in Tenders before a brilliant dinner. Less then 60 on board so great ambience. Went to bed anchored in a cove and awoke to a lovely calm morning.

This shot was taken before 7.00 am when we had breakfast and set off into the Sound again and out to the slightly less smooth Tasman Sea. The forecast had been poor but we had clear, dry weather the whole time.

We thought we had seen the best as we returned to Miford harbour but en route we went back into our overnight cove as someone had heard a familiar sound in the night. Crested Fjord Penguins. They should have been all gone by now but here were a pair yet to leave. I was thrilled.

The only downside here is the Sandfly but we weren't too badly affected. Our guide said heavy rain was on its way to this the first land fall of rain in NZ. We saw some videos of just a couple of weeks ago when they had heavy rain and 200 km winds. Glad that wasn't us. With the rain they get the bonus of hundreds of waterfalls appearing within minutes but the downside is they also get thousands of Sandflies.

On our return in the bus to Queenstown we stopped for a short walk to a Chasm. Back at the car park everyone's attention was taken by two birds under a car. They were Keas, a mother and young bird, even more rare/limited in number than the Kiwi itself! So we were not only lucky with the weather. A unique place. A wonderful experience.