All the nuggets of gold on one page!Thursday 15 October: Kayaking on Milford Sound
An early start today. Woken at 5.00am by a Kea parrot on the roof of the car - but we didn't care - off to go kayaking on Milford Sound this morning.
We were due to meet at 7.00am but actually got there long before that. Our guide turned up early and told us that we were the only ones booked on this trip, so we had him all to ourselves!
So, much to his surprise we were on the water by 7.15 - long before all the cruise boats. We had the entire sound to ourselves!
Then followed 4 hours of amazing beauty. The mountains beside us went straight up 700, 800, up to 1600 meters
We saw young seals playing just yards away from us, penguins and dolphins. We passed under the bottom of a huge waterfall, only just coping with the 40 knot wind it generated at the bottom. We then passed under another, smaller, waterfall and admired the rainbow it generated as we came out.
We kayaked the entire length of the sound in record time. This pleaded our guide since he said he rarely managed the entire sound with his clients. We were taxied back by motorboat.
One lasting impression is how deceptive the sizes and distances are. When kayaking on the sound we realised that everything was 2 to 2.5 times larger or further away than it looked. The mountains are enormous!
Since our trip on the sound finished earlier than anticipated, we then had time to return to the Humboldt falls. This time, instead of taking the path, we rock-hopped up the riverbed in an attempt to reach the base of the falls. We got most of the way but never quite made it to the end.
Then we started the 4 hour journey towards Queenstown ready for tomorriws afventure, stopping for the night about 1 hour short of Queenstown.
Golden Nugget: