Fjordland

For christmas I got "4 days Fjordland adventure" from my mum, Overnight Cruise in the Doubtfulsound, Milfordsound and one day Milfordtrack and it was just amazing! Thank you mum!

On sunday we went by bus, boat and bus again to the Doubtfulsound (otherwise you can just reach it by walking..), where we went on the "Fjordland Navigator" and we had already stunning views before we reached the vessel .

On deck we couldn't stop taking pictures as it was so beautiful, till the crew told us that it was time to go kayaking oder tender boating. It was quite cold, even if it was not raining, but I wanted to do the kayaking anyway, Kerstin wasn't too sure, but did it in the end - and we loved it! I even went swimming in the freezing cold sound-water afterwards. When do you have the possiblity to swim in a sound again?!

After a soup we reached the open sea and saw loads of seals.

Afterwards we had a beautiful dinner, where we just couldn't stop to eat, I even felt slightly sick at the end, cause I ate sooooo much!

I didn't cared so much about the weather, but  was a bit sad that we couldn't see the stars at all (they must be so nice in such a remote place!) at night as it was so cloudy. But at least it didn't rained at all! And it rains at lot in the Doubtfulsound, 9000mm a year! We were really lucky!!!!

then we went to bed in our quad-share with a really weird dutch couple.

After an again really nice breakfast in the morning we went to the sound of silence, where they stopped the engine and we just listend to the nature without making any noises ourselves. I partly really enjoyed it and was partly quite bored as well, as it was quite a long time, but I most of the time enjoyed it!

Then part one, the overnight cruise, was already over :( too fast!

And we went on to the Milford sound and again alerady the way to go there was beautiful!

We had a campspot from our travelguide, but as we reached it ( right in front of the mitre peak) there were loads of signs with "no overnight camping"! Oh no! We were a little bit shocked, should we really drive back all the way to the next campground?! But then we asked some others who seemed to camp there and decided to stay there anyway. Instead of any police there were just loooooaaaadds of sandflies.

The next morning we went on the milfordsoundcruise and theres nothing more to say than briliant weather!

We spend the rest of the day back in TeAnau in the sun and I found out in the evening that Hannah ( a friend from Australia) was it TeAnau too! What a coincidence! So we met each other in the middle of our both campgrounds at Lake TeAnau.

Part 3, the Milforddaytrack: We started in TeAnau again and went by bus and boat to the start of the track (really good weather), where our group, we were just 5 people, didn't started the Trak itself, but a forest walk, where I saw the coolest forest I' ever seen! It started raining when we reached the first hut of the track for lunch and when we wanted to start again it was already so much that Kerstin and I changed to shorts (better wet skin than wet clothes!). After an hour or so I was soaking wet and I had puddles in my shoes, but I still enjoyed it, even if I was freezing by that time. Anyway a little later our guide decided to stop the hiking as we were just tooooo wet and we went back to the boat again, where we saw that there was new snow on the mountains, which was weird ofor us (it's middle of summer?!), but also for the crew.

The Doubtfulsound:

(sound of silence)







On the way to the Milford Sound:




The Milfordsound:












Back in TeAnau:



Milford Track:









I was so wet that our guide gave me his jacket..

...as mine hang on the line.