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Today, so people have been telling me, I was due to see the most beautiful spot in New Zealand which, let's be honest, is an absolutely massive build up. Question is, do you now want me to say those people were correct or that they were wrong?
Dodging this question I can at least say that it is a very pleasant place, although more accurately it is a fiord as it was formed by glaciers (sounds are formed by rivers). Just on the road there are numerous views of mountains, waterfalls and mirror lakes surrounded by the New Zealand forest we have become used to seeing. The only down side is that it takes five hours of this to get from Queenstown to the ferry terminal via Te Anau.
Once on the ferry the first port of call (hooray, a pun!) was to get some lunch. Backpackers + buffet = big lunch. Then plenty of mountains and water all around. We also saw seals, and some very rare penguins (one of the rarest in the world in fact). Also visible was a spectacular waterfall, which the Kiwis say is better than Niagara Falls (higher at least).
We stopped off for a while at the Milford Deep Underwater Observatory to see some of the underwater critters that reside in the fiord. You can walk down to 8m under water, but at this depth you can see creatures that usually live 30m+ down - apparently the fresh water in the fiord blocks out more light than salt water alone, so creatures that live in darker water can survive at this shallow depth.
Back on the boat we headed back to the ferry terminal and then on back to Queenstown.
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