Day Six - Milford Sound...

Day 6
Woke up very early again and took off for Milford Sound. Hopefully this time for real. We made it! Got there and it was as beautiful as we’d heard and seen. Took about 2 hours of pictures on the banks of the lake/sea, and then decided to have brunch. Tom’s SLR crapped out on him, which sux. He just bought it like 2 months ago. I had a meat pie again, and a great tasting bowl of tomato soup. I’m still thinking about that soup. It was wonderful, and it was a bit chilly, prolly about 11 Celsius, so it hit the spot. After that we went to the boat docks and paid for a 2 hour boat tour. Getting out into the sound was great, I’m very glad we decided to do the tour as well. Great close-ups, and much more area covered than what you could see form the shore for sure. We got out into the Tasman Sea to go to the lighthouse that is usually on the tour, but the captain said the sea was too rough to go all the way. It was pretty crazy. I’ve never been on a boat in a body of water that big, and we were jumping 6-8 foot waves, at least. So we came back into the sound. The captain tried to look for a couple of spots where he had seen penguins nesting before, but we didn’t have the chance to see any that day. :( However, it was ok, b/c we did get to see seals AND dolphins! There were about 10-15 dolphin swimming around the boat as we drove. I got a few decent pictures, but that was an amazing experience I won’t soon forget. After the boat tour, we headed out and after a few hours of driving, made it to Queenstown at about sundown. I got some fish and chips from a small curbside stand, and Tom got some McDonald’s. The town was too busy for us to even find a spot to park, so Tom circled while I got mine, and I while he got his. We went to the edge of town and ate, and then took off to find a place to sleep. The fish was really good, and I got a fresh sea scallop for about $1.40 US, but it was so greasy! I got a headache and felt drowsy immediately after. We made it to a town called Cromwell, and set up the usual night of charging, dumping and wine.