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This morning we were up at 7.00am, minus hangovers! We had coffee and toast and headed outside for our 8.15am pick-up to Milford Sound. After a few more pick-ups in Queenstown we hit the road towards Te Anau. The journey took 2 hours and after introducing ourselves to the rest of the coach we fell asleep to the dull tone of Max, our informative, but very boring driver!
We spent 30 minutes browsing souvenir shops in Te Anau before heading to a birdlife park where we saw Alpine Parrots and fat Wood Pigeons amongst others, but it started to rain so we dived back onto the coach. It was another few hours through the scenic Fjordland National Park en-route to Milford Sound and we ended up falling asleep to the driver's voice again! We had some Kodak moments and took a short stroll by the Mirror Lake, in the rain.
We arrived in Milford Sound around 2.15pm and collected our boarding pass before embarking 'Mitre Peak' for our 2 hour cruise just as the sun came out (lucky for us, for a change!). We enjoyed blueberry muffins, chocolate chip orange cookies, coffee and tons of gorgeous pumpkin soup on board whilst sailing through some of the most breathtaking, jaw-dropping scenery we had ever seen! As we sailed towards the Tasman Sea, along the Fjord overlooked by snow-capped mountains and lush green hills, we saw some spectacular waterfalls (which created a beautiful rainbow effect) and seals lying on the rocks. Once we reached the sea we headed out into the waters for fabulous views across the coastline before heading back into the Sound for the return journey. We were lucky enough to be visited by a pod of dolphins, including a couple of babies, who enjoyed playing at the front of our boat and in the wave breaks between ours and another boat. Sarah was so excited about seeing the dolphins that she went to run across the deck, but tripped over the big anchor chain in the middle! Luckily she recovered quick and in time to capture some amazing pictures and a video of the dolphins frolicking in the water.
We docked back at the shore at 4.45pm and got straight back on the coach for the return journey, again stopping at Te Anau for a meal break (we enjoyed the second lot of pack-up of the day). For the final stretch we were entertained with an Eric Clapton DVD (better than the driver!), fell asleep (some more! - it was a late night and a long day!) and arrived back at our hostel at 9.45pm and went straight for a chill out in the TV room before hitting the sack.
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