#MagnificentMilfordSound/Lake/Fiord

I woke up with a start, wondering where I was. I opened the curtains to see the soft pink clouds as they floated over the mountainous and lake views of our house in Te Anue. Today we are going to Milford Sound on a boat trip! Want to hear the difference between a sound and a fiord? I didn’t either! Something about one's cut out from a glacier and the other from running water! I wasn’t really listening. Think the glacier is the sound one.

It’s supposed to be the 8th wonder of the world so our expectations were high! I hopped in the car wearing my shorts because I’ve been frying like a chicken over the last week!
Goose bumps bobbled on my legs as the coldest morning so far set in. We stopped at a few places along the way with spectacular views of waterfalls and mountains! Crystal clear rivers swept across in the valleys with polished rocks and lush green plants for company. We visited mirror lakes-spoiler alert! It’s got a good reflection! I tried to take a photo of myself looking into the water like a mirror nearly dropping my phone in the process!

As we sat driving along the pretty road, I felt something tickling my toes. I looked down.
“Scibidibfligdhuttui!” I squealed!
“What?” Chorused my Dad and Berry in the front.
“There’s a massive bumblebee on my foot !” I screamed
“Well we can't stop!” Came the unwanted reply!
“Ahh! It’s climbing up my leg!”
They found a spot to pull over and I practically rolled from the car to safety. Bumblebee still in the car causing havoc as he bashed his ballon sized head against the back windshield.
Eventually, my dad managed to get him out on a stick.
“The important part, is that I was very brave and didn’t panic!”
At this my dad and Berry looked at me to object as apparently they didn’t agree but instead commented disappointedly that they never took a photo.

I’m sorry that in the face of certain death that I didn’t think to reach for the bloody camera! Again, it was good that I didn’t overreact to the whole bumblebee saga!
Bug free- except for the constant nibbling of the resident sand flies we’d become accustomed to, we plowed on.

Along the dock all the boats were lined up ready to sail, ours was being thoroughly soaked by a man hosing it down so that all the seats were soggy! Was already cold...sigh!
But my spirits were lifted as we sailed across the most beautiful ...
Lake? Fiord? Sound? ... Berry and my Dad are currently arguing about it while I’ll swiftly move on because to be honest, it makes no difference to the story!

Words can’t capture the enormity of the mountains. It was explained to us that one of the mountains reached 700+ meters which is almost double the Empire State Building! Water trickled down from almost every mountain side, some creating larger and more vicious falls than others. The captain decided to sail us right up to the side so we all got splashed! Luckily, the weather had improved by now so the cool water was a welcoming feeling!
A cute addition to the tour was seeing rocks full of furry seals, only teenagers, they were about a metre long but will grow three times that size into adulthood.

As the boat meandered through the water, each new sight was more stunning than the last. The sky was a crisp blue, just a few white clouds floated in the sky above us, the mountains were ever present, guarding the land beneath them majestically as water falls crashed down them. It was absolute paradise!

On the way home we stopped off for a short walk. I put my drama degree training into practise and pretended to be a tree in order to have a photo taken with a tree! Like a really terrible game of Where's Wally! A different walk led us to a waterfall, the water fell between cave walls that had disintegrated. We were stood on a bridge at the top of the falls so it was cool to look down and see the tunnels that

have formed over the years.

It was boiling hot outside and yet we still decided it would be a good idea to get a coffee, we bought one from a lady in a van, usually buying stuff out the back of a van is cheap so I was a little surprised to see she charged $8 for a hot chocolate! But still, she was nice and let us take shelter under her tree. We took a slow drive back to our cottage and decided to head into the little town to get an ice cream by the lake. We ended up having cocktails and dinner too which was a nice treat! The sunset outside the house was incredible. Once the sun was gone, in its place hundreds of stars punctuated the darkening sky. Being in the middle of nowhere meant that we could see loads of different star consolations and I tried to find Orion's belt which is the only one I know, which also happens to be the one all children above the age of 5 know.
The following day was our last day together, we relaxed at our cottage eating chocolate and drinking tea and I read my book. In the evening we went to the lakeside, I dived in for a swim and then freaked out every time something touched my leg thinking it was an eel. Finally feeling cooler, I found my spot on a rock and read my book looking out over the picturesque view in front of me.