Milford Sounds

Today we went on a coach - cruise - coach tour to Milford Sounds, run by the company Juicy, which basically means we spent a ridiculous amount of time on a coach for a short cruise.

We set off at 9 and picked up a whole load of people from various stops around Queenstown and then started our journey. Our first stop was around half 11 at a town called Te Anu. We stopped at a little centre that had a cafe and a shop. Neither Lauren or I got anything. It was expensive and we brought food with us. Whilst we were there we saw the Kiwi Experience bus that was going to Milford Sounds also stopped there. At 11:50 we set off again towards Milford Sounds. We pretty much followed the Kiwi Bus all the way. We stopped at all the same photo spots, including the Mirror Lakes, which was actually a river, and Monkey Creek.

We got to Milford Sounds around 2:45pm. We got straight onto the boat which was leaving at 3 for an hour and a bit cruise. The Kiwi Experience group got on the exact same boat. If we had done our trip yesterday with Juicy, we would have been with the other girls anyway.

Milford Sounds is just stunning. The water was a greeny turquoise colour and was surrounded by huge cliffs. The sky was blue and the sun was out, which is apparently very rare in Milford. We went upstairs onto the top deck at the beginning of the cruise. It was very very windy. I didn't last long up there while Lauren stayed almost the entire cruise. Whilst I was up top though, I did see a dolphin which was awesome. It followed the boat for a while and then disappeared.  When I came down from the top deck I stood outside at the back which was considerably less windy. It was just beautiful. We reached the sea and then turned around and came back.

On the way back I went back up the top and it was much less windy. We went and floated right next to some rocks which had fur seals lazing about on top. They were pretty cute. Then we went basically right under a waterfall. Lauren and I went right out the front of the boat in our waterproofs. We got soaked. The spray was going everywhere but it was pretty amazing.

The cruise ended back where it started and we got back on the bus from the long journey back. We drove for an hour and 45 minutes and go to Te Anu around half 6 for a short stop before continuing on our way. We got back to the hostel about 9 and started packing as tomorrow we are leaving Queenstown.