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Day 26: Te Anau/Milford Sound: November 23rd
We had a good sleep in Te Anau, checked out and got the road to Milford low down. Went to town for buns at a meat pie place (Saare wouldn't go in), coffee and a savory muffin, buns at another bakery and gas. The sky was clear blue and we made lots of stops along the way. First was a jog town for us - a walk to a lake that we decided to run. Slightly painful but one of the most beautiful paths ever. We stopped at mirror lakes, then we missed our second designated run spot at Gunn lake oops then past the Divide where the Routeburn track to glenorchy starts/ends. We drove down a dirt road past a crazy big rockslide and onto a rest stop with waterfalls. We hiked up - gorgeous. We got back and saw a cool suspension bridge over one of the many ridiculously clear beautiful rivers. Lunch time! We walked across the river, knee high, to an awesome spot on the river. We could have taken the bridge across and down but didn't realize. Accident adventure. We had sannies and wine by the river in the sun. It was pretty amazing. Back on the road. Pulled in to see hype Chasm (potholes) and had to race to beat the bus that had just pulled in! Then made our way to Milford - we were stunned by the size and beauty of the mountains. It is impossible to do them justice in pictures or words. Huge peaks and waterfalls along the sheerest rock faces. We arrived at a stop light and waited for our turn to take the 1km tunnel right through said mountains. Incredible experience! More incredible beauty on the other side and we arrived at Milford (the Milf as Saare calls it haha) Crazy to see 1 bus in a parking lot designed for 50 - another visual of how busy summer will be. We checked in and departed on the Milford Mariner at 4. They had a chef, nature guide, skipper, and crew. We soon learned that Milford is a Fiord, not a sound. It was carved by glaciers and then flooded by ocean, not carved by rivers and flooded by ocean which is a sound. We enjoyed the spectacular nature around us, seals, birds. Our cabin was tiny but just fine! So fun to stay on the ship. We cruised out of the sound to Anita Bay for water activities - lucky people on the tenders got to see penguins. We were debating but figured it would be more fun on kayaks. Fun people watching and we toured the shore and saw a big crawfisher boat pulling a haul up. We kayaked back and they let us jump from up on the ship into the Tasman sea - the holy waters they call it becuase it is so protected and monitored! Crystal clear and soooo beautiful! Was so fun and we jumped a few times and Saare did his penguin dive which the crew loved and I did a back flip. We showered and had happy hour our on the decks as the boat made a rare journey out into the open Tasman sea to look for whales and dolphins. Usually too swelly for activities/Tasman but we were lucky to see the coastline and look back towards the fiord. We came back in to have dinner. We were assigned to a table with an odd French couple. I could see the whole crew on the foredeck and though hmm that is suspicious and looked where they were looking and sure enough saw a blowhole spray so I said WHALE! And we jumped from our table and ran to the deck haha love the drama. It was a spectacular hour or so of watching the Tasman humpback whales! They were prett lazy just lumping around the boat. Amazing. We finally sat to a delicious dinner at about 8:30, enjoyed a great slideshow from our nature guide. He was on he PA system throughout the journey telling us about what we see. It was cool to see the fiord in the bad weather too - we west coasters know that there is beauty in that too - the entire mountainside becomes painted by waterfalls. Very cool. Played rummy and bed time. We moored in Harrison's cove right by mitre peak, the four sisters. I am still rocking sea bands and not sea sick. Woohoo!!
November 24th: Milford Sound/Dunedin: Day 27
The morning was cloudy but calm so we went to find penguins and dolphins. No dolphins but we found the rare crested penguin on the shore! A family of them! They were sooo cute hopping around the rocks. They stick together to ward off their pray - the stoat (weasel like thing that kills for fun). Their defense is to projectile vomit! We got back at 9:15 and hit the road to Dunedin, first out of the road which was awesome. We stopped in Te Anau again for coffee/muffin. We knew we would need some breaks as we were both tired from a bad sleep on the ship. We travelled east through mega Podunk farmland. I can't get enough of watching the sheepies - the babies are so cute either grazing, following mom, bouncing around, or leaning their bodies agains their mom when they are just chilling. We arrived in Dunedin around 2:30 and headed downtown for our usual pint plus wifi. The town is very cool - centered around an actual octagon with free wifi and lots of action had 2 pints and squid. The SK Adams booking company chose the two brothers and we made our way to check in. The city was originally built up by Scotsman (Robbie Burns nephew) and Presbyterians. Lots of beautiful churches and architecture - haven't seen much of that yet. We checked in and had a nap in our room. Then eh had a complimentary happy hour where we chatted with the owner who bought this as a boys school teachers house and renovated! He also lives in Arrowtown and his brother used to own the bakery . Hahaha!!! What are the chances. We chatted with a couple from Belgium too. We went out to the recommended two chefs for a nice dinner!! It was a French restaurant and we enjoyed our meal big time.
Day 28: Dunedin: November 25th
We had an amazing sleep and continental brekky and off we went. We walked to the train station toe see the beautiful building. Pew arrived right in time for our Cadbury chocolate factory tour as recommended by the Machins! First highlight = Saare in a hair and beardnet. Second = goodie bags. Third = loud liquid chocolate falling from ceiling. So good! They use NZ dairy in the chocolate - what makes it so killer delish! Chocolate also flows through pipes in the ceiling. After that we got Saare another amazingrace deal on a merino wool tee.. Found out there is no where to rent surfboards here???? We had lunch at "Best Cafe" (since 1932) which was an awesome old school cafe and we tried for oysters (sold out), then chowder (sold out) (at this point we know it is legit) and had scallops and blue cod fish and chips. Yummy! The. I looked at a few shops while SK came back to read hobbit. We took off to seek out penguins and albatross. The peninsula was beautiful - so many sheepies! We arrived at the end of the road and it was a bit of a nightmare - seagulls/s***hawks everywhere!!!!! It was worse thN downtown Vic - every centimeter was covered in bird crap. We kept our mouths closed and wandered up to where the albatross colony was. We didn't pay the $50 to see the colony but loved seeing a few albatross fly over us. These things absolutely dwarf seagulls and have a wingspan of 3.3 meters. Pretty incredible! We drove up a random road to where we thought we could see penguins but the kiwis have the whole area on lockdown - you must pay for tours if you want to see anything. Not what a couple of Canadian west coasters are used to!!! So we drove away and up a cliffy road amidst such cute sheep (a baby scratching on the barb wire fence was so cute) to a view point over sandfly beach - never saw the yellow eyed penguins (they are incubating right now) but we saw sea lions chilling on the beach after deep sea fishing. Came back to town and drove around the octagon. A few time the. parked and hit a busy Alabar - had delicious jalapeño feta goodness and hand pumped ESB from Nelson, then a best bitter and hare... The bartender was very into Saare which was quite entertaining. SK is a stylish manly man who doesn't wear a wedding ring but hangs out with w a married woman.... Baha anyways we stopped in to Doon, a scotch bar but they didn't have food so we went to Etrezo for Italian. Good dins and back to the hotel!
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