(First of all, I’m sure you spell Fjord with a J but it’s spelled with an I here). Set off from Te Anau mid-morning, because although it’s only a couple of hour drive (110km) to Milton Sound, we wanted to take it slowly and stop and see all the sights on the way. The Milford Road was built in the early 1950s and it is a road only to Milford. Before that, the Sound could only be reached by boat. There is also the Milford Track with is a ‘trampers’ (ramblers/walkers) route which takes four days to or from the Sound itself. But Milford Sound isn’t a Sound at all (a Sound, we were told, is when a river valley is flooded from the sea). This is a fiord, an ice-carved valley formed millions of years ago, with steep sides, flooded by the sea after the glacier retreated. And the road all the way through, billed as one of the most scenic drives in the world, was stunning. We stopped a number of times and took photos which do no justice to this amazing place and at one stop, a Kea (Alpine Parrot) started biting the rubber strip around the car door)
We’d booked the overnight boat the Milford Mariner, which was very comfortable – large cabins and great lounges with good observation windows. It only sleeps 60 in 30 cabins and for the first time in months, was not full – only 45 on board. As we set sail (or pulled off) the weather was bright so the crew gave us three options, Kayaking, going out in the small launch boats or swimming, once we moored in Harrisons Bay, about 30 minutes later. Well, no-one chose swimming (don’t think it was a real option!) and we, along with ten others, chose kayaking.
First time we’d done proper kayaking rather than just by the sea shore or on little boat lakes. It was a wonderful experience – silently gliding through the water in this most amazing place. These activities were followed by a very nice dinner with an interesting slide show and nature talk afterwards. Lots of happy story-swapping through dinner and then an early night. This morning we awoke to heavy rain – and were told it had been snowing during the night. We cruised out to where the Sound opens into the sea and must have seen literally hundreds of waterfalls – waterfalls everywhere, 
from the snow-capped alps into the fiord and sea. Sorry, pictures here are very poor because of the rain.Sid and I, and two other people on board, had booked in advance to go to the Milford Deep – the underwater observatory, in Harrisons Bay. The Mariner dropped us there and it was certainly worth doing – you can only do it if you’re not coach-dependent after the cruise, as the coach tours don’t allow time for this. It was fascinating, a glass chamber floating 10 metres beneath the fiord, and masses of fish and coral all around, although from above the fiord just looks like very deep (100 – 300 metre deep), dark water. But because fresh water from the mountains forms the top layer of the fiord, marine life can live much shallower in the water, you just can’t see it from above. A launch was supposed to take us back to shore, but while we were on board a message came through saying that the Milford Road was closed (first time this year, remember Autumn is just starting here now) through snow.
We were taken back to the Mariner where everyone was still on board and relaxed there for a few hours until the message came through that gritters had opened the road. This must have messed up all the schedules as each day about 30 different two-hour cruises go out and full coaches go up and down the Milford Road all the time. But another bit of adventure for us. Back in Te Anau now with no problems and off to the glow worm caves tonight.
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