New Zealand Day 5

We enjoyed our hotel in Te Anau. The boys were happy to watch anything on TV, even princess dragon shows. 

The hotel in Te Anau was quite nice. There were enough beds for all of us, a small kitchenette, a separate room for the boys and a fold-out couch. There was also a tin roof, and when it started raining in the middle of the night, it sounded like we were sleeping in a rain stick. It rained for most of the night, and was still pouring when we woke up. But we got all ready for the day and headed out for the drive out to Milford Sound.

It's 118 kilometers (75 miles) from Te Anau to Milford Sound, and the road is windy and steep. We left early in the drizzling rain, but the drive was still okay. We needed to get to the end of the road by 10:30 to pick up our tickets for the cruise. We left at 7:45, which would give us plenty of time to make the two-hour drive. As we got farther out along the road, we started to see little patches of snow. Those patches grew and grew, and eventually we started passing snowplows. Soon the snow lay thick all around, and it was still coming down. This snow was thick and wet, too, not powdery and dry like the snow back home. Finally, we came to a one-way tunnel. We had to stop for a few minutes until it was our turn to go though, and there was at least four inches of slush piled on the road. Not only that, the car reported that it was one degree (34F) outside!

Snow in June? We are used to snow, but it this stuff was really wet!

The mountains were covered in fog and clouds.

We did enjoy all the waterfalls running down the mountainside.

Since Dad has done a lot of driving in snow, it wasn't too bad. We still made it out toward the end of the road in good time. In fact, we were running early, so we made a stop at a short walk called The Chasm. It stopped raining just enough to allow us to stay mostly dry as we made the short hike. It was a loop that crossed the river twice, each time as it cut swiftly though a narrow deep chasm below the bridge. The water was roaring extra high due to the snow. Mark even spotted a bird called a weka. He has been writing down each bird he's spotted in the book his uncle bought him, and today he made it to 30.

It was drizzly the entire trail. This was the first time we had bad weather all trip!

We were bundled up, but the chasm was super cool!

It was hard to show in pictures, but we are looking down into this crack and it has tons of water rushing through it. 

More rainforests, or maybe snowforests near Milford Sound.

We continued down the last stretch of the road, marveling at the hundreds of ribbons of waterfalls that were streaming down the mountains. The mountains are incredibly high and plunge straight into the sea, and to see them covered with rivers and streams just for us was a special treat. We were so excited.

Finally we made it to Milford Sound and boarded the boat. It was a massive ferry with multiple decks, most of which were covered so we wouldn't get wet. The rain was on and mostly off, so we still spent most of our time out on one of the decks. On top of the ship the rain and the wind were freezing, but it didn't bother us too much. The sound is surrounded by steep mountains (there is a reason this is called fjordland), which rise up to four thousand feet straight out of the water. Each one was snow-capped and water was cascading in silver lines down every face. The mountains plunge straight down to a depth of over a thousand feet below the surface. When we were deep in the sound, the ship didn't even appear to rock, but as we got closer to open water, the waves began to whitecap and it definitely felt like we were on rough seas.

Milford Sound was beautiful even in the drizzly rain.

This is the ferry that we rode on. 

We had a great trip on the boat and Mom only got a little nauseous, which is her normal sea sickness now.

The fjords are amazing.

We spotted the dolphins right on the side of the boat, but Mom didn't get a picture.

There were waterfalls everywhere!

Everyone went to check out the front of the boat.

Just then we heard and announcement that dolphins had been spotted. Almost immediately Mark called out and sure enough he'd spotted two dolphins just yards from the ship's rail. They played in the wake behind the boat as we stood on the aft deck and watched them in the sea green water.

After we'd reached open water, we turned around and came back. The highlight of the return trip was a massive waterfall. We stood on the top of the ship as it nosed right into the cascade. Freezing mist had us all squealing and laughing, but we didn't get too wet. We went down below and on the way back we listened to our relatives tell us about their experience with the earthquake in Christchurch a few years ago (2011).

This waterfall is huge and beautiful. Our boat went right up next to it.

The spray was powerful! Look at Seth's hair!

We got an up close and personal look at the waterfall!

For lunch most of us made sandwiches in the car, but Dax wanted something hot, so he got soup with his aunt and uncle in the little cafe. The rest of us took some hot chocolate to the car and ate lunch there. When Dad went back in to collect Dax, he had his own hot chocolate from his auntie, and he was complimented on his manners.

We spotted this beautiful egret on our way back to the car. 

Hot chocolate was a must on this cold day!

We started back down the road and had to abandon plans to do a few hikes because of the snow and slush. We did make some stops at Mirror Lake and Gun Lake and Mark added a few birds to his list. The drive wasn't so bad and the weather was much better. We even spotted some keas by the tunnel, and they hopped right over to Dad for a handout, but he had nothing to give them because we know not to feed animals.

The sign must have told the kea who was friendly. 

They are such a cool bird, but they are endangered because they have learned to rely on humans to feed them.

Mirror Lakes still had a reflection even with the cloudy skies. 

Another drizzly hike in Fjordlands National park.

New Zealand Scaup, we saw it at Mirror Lake.

Seth was a great little hiker all day long.

I'm not even sure where we took this picture, but we sure are cute.

On the way back to Te Anau, we stopped at Lake Mistletoe. There was a little pier on one side where the sun was showing off behind the clouds. Then we walked a short trail down to Lake Mistletoe. We also stopped along the lake by our hotel to throw some rocks, and then played at the playground for a little bit before dinner. We had a great time on the zipline!

The lake in Te Anau is large and pretty. 

The lighting was awesome!

Seth found this huge tree on the Lake Mistletoe hike.

Here's Lake Mistletoe.

Seth took this picture for Mom and Dad.  

It was very green along the trail. 

Our boys can't help throwing rocks in every lake.

Mom loved this huge tree that was living in the lake.

It looks super later, but it's about 5:00 pm! 

We rode the zipline a lot of times!

Mom beat Mark every time!

Seth did not want to run the line back to the other side.  

Dax didn't always stay on.

Mom probably had the most fun...

...Until she stopped over the water. Then it was big trouble!

We got back to the hotel a little earlier than expected, so we had time to clean up a little before dinner. The boys fell in love with a New Zealand game show called The Chase in which competitors try to answer more questions than an expert. They liked the show despite the fact that none of us could really answer many questions as most of them were about New Zealand pop culture.

For dinner, we were able to celebrate Eid together. This is the end of Ramadan, and they described it as a time to feast and be with family. They found a nice restaurant and we ate and talked together. There were great appetizers like chicken poppers that were amazing, breaded squid, and bruschetta. Then most of the adults had lamb shank and mashed potatoes while the kids ate spaghetti with meat sauce. We finished up with ice cream. It really was a nice feast, and our relatives said it was the first time that they got to celebrate Eid with extended family in New Zealand.