7am prompt departure time, breakfast at 6am for the 8th Wonder of the World, Fio & Anna have decided not to go, they are hiring bikes instead. The aim is to get to a small town called Te Anua around 9am, buy lunch for the boat here and any other things we think we might need, the cruise is 1-3pm and James has suggested we all use the toilet before we get off the boat and head straight to the coach so we can have a prompt exit and not get caught in the traffic up to the tunnel ie get back to Queenstown asap, everyone is in agreement on that one! Might get to see more Kea (my plan is to do a blog on NZ birds as we have seen a lot of them and been very lucky to do so and some of the group have captured some pretty good pics too.

The Homer Tunnel:

The day is grey, dull and wet but it set to be gorgeous by the time we get to Milford Sound so totally back to front to what it normally is, we have been utterly blessed with good weather, NZ have been having a dreadful time weather wise with slips/landslides killing some people in the North Island and we have missed most of it. The day improves as we travel and when we get to Milford Sounds it is simply beautiful, perfect timing by James, we get there just as they are announcing boarding so just 30 mins before we push off. Lovely big ship. On the way out, the heathen that I am, even though it was beautiful wondered if I should have just stayed behind and was this journey worth 2 hours, honestly, I am glad I did come, however, do yourselves a favour and make at least a night of it to enjoy it properly as it is gorgeous. I can imagine it would be really cold on some days and wet, it is really windy outbound towards the Tasman Seaman, when we turn to come back it is not and we have commentary by a really experienced young man whose name escapes me, he has been down her 8 years and has “tramped all of the surrounding hills and mountains, the waterfalls are amazing one of which is called Lady Bowen which provides all the drinking water for the area including on the ship, it was truly springlike and so fresh, Lady Bowen also provides all the power for the area, quite a lady!

Milford Sounds is at its full height is approx 1400 metres above and 300 metes below. It is one of 2 places in the world where you can see a Galcier, rain forest and a Fiord in Alignment.

The Kakapo is NZ’s, famous, critically, endangered ie less than 200, flightless, they are however excellent climbers, and nocturnal parrot. Whilst they are not found in the wild at Milford Sound (living on a predator free offshore islands instead) close by, they are the primary flightless parrot of the region. If you see a parrot at Milford Sound it is likely to be the mischievous Kea which flys! No we didn’t see one!

We meet back at the bus as directed to find another coach has parked directly behind us, James is not happy, however, there is a rule, apparently, that if you do this you leave your side door unlocked and your keys in the ignition or close by so that the other driver can move your bus as you are not meant to leave it. The Japanese driver who had thus far decided to make us wait sees James inside his bus and comes flying over – he went boogaloo! He was accusing James of breaking into his bus – to be fair guilty as charged but then went too far when he wanted to know what he had stolen! Then all hell broke loose within the group, cool calm collected James went for the parking attendants, oh my days eventually it was sorted and he finally after taking a picture of James and his number plate with his thumbs up smiling agreed to move his bus.

We got back into Queenstown around 7.30 pm – Fio and I went down for a swim in the lake she was hot for a crazy long cycle and I just needed air, walk and water……after that dried off and came back up and met up with Ellen & Anna for a bite to eat at Walter’s bar………now this was one of those unexpected nights which then turned a bit messy and included Karioke – such a hoot Fio went first and was great, there was a girl who went after who’s enthusiasm out matched her ability and thankfully even I thought I couldn’t be worse than that, my first song choice was not available and the 2nd one got lost to everyone’s mercy I promise you……Fio went on to do another song and indeed a German duet with Anna, the lovely Martina form Meath joined us also and we just had a fun night……not everyone was feeling so bright the next morning and I was up and ready for my tandem jump around 6.30, however, over breakfast I received an apology email that an error had been made and the rest is history, so I could have had a lie in, I did go down and waited to see if anyone dropped out but they they didn’t.