24 I woke up to my alarm clock as the last of the Spanish group were leaving the dorm room. I made up a tasty breakfast of sausages in between some slices of bread (I'm pretty inventive with my resources!). I learned while making this reakfast, that sausage sticks to stainless steel pans if there is no oil. (I haven't bought oil because I haven't got a good way to transport it in a rucksack easily - I am sure I will have ironed these things out in due course!
After washing up, I left the pan cleaner than when I picked it up, so I guess that's my good deed for the day!
As forecast, it was raining fairly persistently, which put me in a good mood, as it meant the Giant's Gate waterfall that I was about to walk to, would be in spate, so looking good!
Pick up was at eight thirty as scheduled, and I met a couple from California, who had driven here themselves. I was already wearing the insect repellent, which seemed to be effective, as there were plenty of sandflies mobbing the porch area of the hostel, and they would get close to me but fly away again.
The Americans decided to try and blag a lift with the shuttle bus, but there was 1 too many people, so they had to stick to their original plan of driving there.
We re-congregated at the docks, and waited for the last couple to arrive
Our walking group was made up of 3 Californians, 2 Swedish people, 2 Germans, 2 Polish, and 2 Swedish people. The Swedish people arrived as the harbour master came up to our tour guide and told him we had to leave now to free up the pier, so just in time for them!
We all made good time along path, though most people seemed to be trying to avoid getting their feet wet. I decided my feet were going to get wet anyway so saved my energy by just walking through them.
We were walking the wrong way along the Milford Track, which is a very popular walking route that takes 4 days. To be able to walk along the Milford track you pretty much need to book a year in advance, as only 90 people per day are allowed on each section - so 90 people join a day. This means that even if you don't want to go on in one day, you have to because there's 90 people behind you wanting the hut you wre in the night before!
As it was another rainy day, all of the waterfalls were spectacular again, and equally difficult to photograph, on account of the mist and cloud in the air
We reached our destination - Giant's Gate Waterfall, with plenty of time to spare, and the guide broke out the tea and coffee and handed out cookies to everyone. We crossed the very mobile suspension bridge to the outhouses, and some of us still had our coffee cups. We met some walkers coming the correct way, and one of them exclaimed "Where did you get coffee? Quick everyone, Mug them!", which was pretty amusing - they were only a few miles to their destination, and had been walking for 3 and a half days after all
We made it back to Sandfly Point (the end of Milford Track), for 1pm where the boat was waiting for us, and headed back to the Milford Docks, where we went our separate ways.
As we were heading back, the cloud started to lift, and there was even the hint that the sun might make it through the clouds.
I went to the Southern Discoveries heck in desk, to find out what time I had to check in, and they checked me in and gave me the passes for the boat there and then, and said to just be back for 2.20pm ready to board.
That gave me an hour to play with, so I wandered over to the information center 10 minutes away, and ordered a Chai tea. This appeared to be a novel thing for the person behind the counter, because he kept thinking I wanted a chai coffee, until the person beside him waved the box of Chai tea infront of him. Apparently Chai Latte is a thing now, and people order that normally.
I took the opportunity to de-mist the camera lens, and dry out my jacket, enjoying the hot tea, and then walked back to the docks to get on the boat.
As I walked back to the boat, the rain had completely stopped and there was even a patch of blue sky!
The cruise was everything it was advertised to be, we got to see a blue bottle nosed dolphin, a tiny penguin (possible little blue?), some paradise ducks, all the waterfalls, and of course all of the amazing scenery of the fjord.
The fact that the cloud had lifted and we could properly see the cliffs and waterfalls made it even more special, after having been denied the sight for the last 30 hours!
I noticed a couple trying to take a selfie so offered to take their photo for them, then remembered that we were going to go past the 4 sisters, a set of four waterfalls, and recommended that they use that as the back drop instead, so when the opportunity came we did that instead, for which they were very grateful.
I managed to get photos of the Kissing Turtles, which is a rock formation caused by glacial plucking, which looks like two turtles kissing - this also being the place where we set off on the kayaks back to shore.
The boat went a bit further out in to the Tasman sea so that we could appreciate how easily it was that Captain Cook had missed theentrance to the fjord, as there are many overlapping mountains.
On the way back n we saw more penguins, and then were treated to a shower directly underneath the Stirling falls.
Being of nervous disposition, I ensured that my Canon camera was sealed inside a resealable food bag for that bit, though I did take some footage on my phone - which I will upload when I get a chance - videos are quite data intensive though, and photos have priority!
After that, those of us (including me) who had paid the extra for the underwater observatory were dropped off in Hamilton Cove, while the rest were taken back to the docks.
There were plenty of fish swimming around the observation dome - and it seemed to me like it was a bit of role reversal really, the humans were in a tank inside the fish's habitat, so maybe they were stopping by to look at us too!
We were picked up from the observatory and sped off to the Lady Bown falls, which looked amazing in the sunshine, after having been fed by over a days worth of constant rain, on top of the glacial water that normally feeds it.
We got back to the docks, and rather than going straight back to the lodge, I decided to walk around the bay a bit and admire the scenery - part of the reasoning for this being that, it was really nice weather now, which might not be the case in the morning .
I didn't regret this choice, as I was treated to a Bell bird coming and feeding out of the flowers right in front of me, as well as the most spectacular views of Milford Sound yet. Only my panorama feature on my phone could come close to capturing it, though not really, as the scale of it could never been shown on film - having been up close and personal with all the water falls in the area I knew exactly how high they were, and seeing them all relative to each other and to Mitre Peak, just blew me away.
As I came towards the starting point for the beach walk, which I had just completed, I passed by an American girl who looked just as dumbfounded by the scenery as I felt, both of us wearing stupid grins on our faces, so we catted with each other about how amazing the place was, and I admitted that I could pobably starve to death on the beach just through looking at the scenery!
I got back to the lodge, and sorted out my room, before going to the cafe to enjoy another hot meal of Vietnamese beef salad.
I got back to the room, and as I was sorting through the photos (I had taken 252 in the last 2 days, despite my saying there weren't many opportunities), and met Lina from Germany, who was here with her sister.
They had both been intending on going on a boat cruise in the morning, but due to the weather causing their car to be too foggy to see, they missed the boat. They were treated well by the boat company though as were allowed to transfer their tickets to the next day for free!
Her sister came in to the room clutching toiletries shortly after she had gone, and I continued the conversation thinking she was Lina, which confused us both, until Lina returned and all became clear.
We were soon lights out, and then the other 4 people arrived at 11.30pm or so, having not made their beds, so they had to struggle with the lights out. I'm not sure how well they managed as I fell asleep before they finished