beauty is all around us … so why can’t I see it ???

Unlike a few days before, today we had yet again an early start and this meant that with sleepy eyes I got dressed and had breakfast just like the rest of our group so that we could leave for Milford Sound at about 7 AM. I was really looking forward to this day coz I read so much about it, the trouble however is that someone told me that it rains about 300 days at this particular place, so it was unlikely that with our luck we were going to see it with a bright blue sky.

The trip towards Milford Sound was going to take a few hours and as soon as we were gone, Helen told us that it wasn’t likely that we were going to see it without rain. I knew it, it was just our luck again, but hopefully it wouldn’t be that bad?

I still had a little bit of hope left, because after all, what else is there? Helen assured us however that not only the Sound, but also the road towards it was well worth, so at least we had something to look forward to.

About one hour into the trip, we suddenly stopped at a very big open field with mountains in the distance and suddenly it hit me why our driver Craig was playing the theme song of the musical „Sound of Music”. When "Maria" started to sing, Craig and Helen jumped out of the bus and started frolicking around. I have to admit it is kind of a weird experience but on the other hand, with the snowy mountains in the near distance, it sounded about right. The temperature on the other hand could be better, but hey, the music and sceneries made the stop well worth and as soon as we found our responsible „leaders” again, it was time to go back on the road again where we stopped about half an hour later.

This time we had a quick stop at the Mirror Lakes, which are well-known for their reflection onto the water and although we had yet again a cloudy day, I was amazed to see that you still could see it. The water is truly crystal clear and I was wondering if I could drink from it and I am sure we could.

Fortunately we couldn’t gaze at the mountains too much coz other tour groups were following us as well and the sad story is that this was going to be for the remainder of the day, definitely not a fun day if you have to run through everything just in order to see something, but that sometimes happens when you are on a tour trip I suppose.

From the lakes we drove further on and had a quick toilet stop in Knobs Flat, where you had just a few toilets and I think I even saw a caravan park, but that’s about it. A very sad place indeed, so that is probably the reason we just went there to have a 5 minute break.

Once back on the bus, it was yet again a fairly long drive, but Craig made it up with a few photo stops along the way and I do agree with Helen on this one, the drive towards the Sound is amazingly beautiful, especially when you have some customized music playing through the boxes. It was like driving through a magical place and the waterfalls we drove by from time to time were nice to look at as well. To be honest, I was waiting for the moment some fairies were going to come out and play. But that's just me of course!

As we arrived at the Homer tunnel, which was cut out through the entire mountain, we had to wait a few minutes before we could go trough, but once we got the green light, we've got an amazing experience of driving through it on the theme song of Mission Impossible with a laser show and everything. That is something I really like about Topdeck, even at dull moments, they always try to lift up the spirit and it really works. I really love that!

Passing the Homer tunnel, it amazed me, that after driving about half an hour we arrived in some kind of forest that could easily be the shooting location for the movie Jurassic Park. It is strange, but being here in New Zealand wants me to compare everything with movies, I guess the recent relaeses of the Hobbit movies as well as the Lord of the Rings movies don’t help this of course. But I have to admit, this country is made for making some of the world’s greatest movies and who knows how many will follow coz when we were in Wellington almost a week ago, they were telling us something of a sequel for the Avatar movie. Not my favorite one, but now seeing all this, I can imagine why they wanna film it here. When the sun is coming out, it must be mind-blowing, because it is beautiful with dark clouds as well.

Dark clouds usually meant trouble and this time it was no different, coz as soon as we drove a few minutes through a forest, it started to rain, but it in way that's not the right word, it were more downpours. It literally came falling out of the sky with buckets. Unbelievable!

Sadly enough we had to go and see the Chasm, which is sort of a water fall, but with the heavy rainfall, no one is really enthusiastic and nor am I, but I am here and I don’t think I am coming back soon, so as soon as I put on my rain jacket I walk into the rainforest (hence why we have it of course) and I loved it. The spooky looking trees were amazing, the many ferns looked the same, I could wonder of here if it wasn’t for the rain of course and secondly of all, the hundreds of asian people walking besides me with their umbrellas trying to do their best to poke my eyes out … jeezzz, that is not what I particularly call magical. Now I know why it is only us humans out here!

Needless to say, we walked through the forest if our ass was on fire and as soon as we were on the road again, it was only an one hour drive towards the Milford Sound, which we reached … in the rain!

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointment when we arrived and as soon as we were on the boat, it started to rain even harder. I have to admit that a depression was starting to kick in and besides a few waterfalls and lots of fog, there was nothing else to see here at the sound. It didn’t help when the crew of the boat told us how beautiful it was here at the Sound because at that moment we couldn’t see much. Needless to say, the mood was gone to almost freezing temperatures for some of us, including yours truly. Although I have to admit that there were still some people on board who saw the fun in it coz they were even crazy enough to go and stand under a freezing cold waterfall. I on the other hand can verify how pure the water was by drinking it, that is how far my sense of adventure goes when I am on depression mode!

During our 3 hour cruise, we tried to spot a few penguins, but in the end we never saw one single one. I have my hopes up at meeting a few in Torango Zoo but we will see when we get there, for now it was just one lonely seal and that is about everything you can see here when we are talking about wildlife. When I come to think about it, it is a bit disappointing as well coz since my last trip to Australia, I saw so much wildlife that for some crazy reason, I expected the same here in New Zealand. Not a jumping kangaroo or even a cute koala, but somehow I expected to see lots of birds, but the only one showing up was a Kea at the parking lot of the waterfall we visited earlier. Maybe we have chosen the wrong season???

Nothing to do about that of course, but I was so glad to be of the boat again because not only didn't I see something worthwhile, I also began to get a bit seasick, so during the ride back to Te Anau where we were going to spend the night, I did nothing else but sleep in the bus. It seemed I was really exhausted.

Upon our arrival at the hotel, we quickly dropped of our luggage and went for a run. After a whole day of riding and sleeping in a bus it was time for a bit of action and a half an hour run around the lake was just the perfect medicine. It made me feel all energized again.

It was already fairly late when we had dinner, so needless to say, by the time that I packed my stuff and got organized it was already time to close my eyes and dream about an other day on the road.