Buses, Bathrooms, & Boats

Thursday June 15th – We had to get up really early today for our Milford Sound tour. The bus picked us up at 6:50 am then picked up only two other people before heading to our first stop, Te Anau. The bus was one of those huge greyhound buses with a toilet in the back, comfortable, reclining seats, and a video screen. The driver had a microphone hookup and provided commentary through much of the trip. I had brought my Dramamine but hadn’t taken it as I figured on a big comfortable bus I wouldn’t need it, right? WRONG! I could tell in the first 20 minutes that this was a HUGE mistake. I quickly took a pill, but alas, it was too late. I spent the 2 hours to Te Anau alternating between the toilet and the seat closest to the toilet. Thankfully we stopped for about an hour in Te Anau and I was able to get some Dramamine into my system, which actually stayed in the system, and I was fine for the rest of the day.

The drive to Milford sound was beautiful although it did rain the whole time and even snowed in certain sections. The bus stopped frequently at different points of interest but we didn’t spend much time outside due to the weather. We arrived at Milford sound at about 1pm, and got on our boat for the 2 hour tour. It continued to rain which made most of our photos not turn out but still, it was beautiful. There are tons of waterfalls pouring off the sides of the steep cliffs of the sound and the scenery is fantastic. Here are a few facts about Milford Sound; first of all, it is actually not a sound, it’s a fiord. Which means the valley now flooded by the ocean was created by a glacier. It is 16km long (10 miles) and 330 meters deep. It lies in Fiordland National Park and is the northernmost of the 14 fiords in the park. It is also the home of Mitre Peak, the world’s highest sea cliff (1692 meters) and one of the most photographed mountains in New Zealand.

One of the highlights of the boat trip was coming across a pod of Bottlenose dolphins (Turiops truncatus). There were about 20 of them and they were eager to “bow surf” meaning ride the wake of the front of our boat. Sue and I hung over the bow taking photos and video and they would occasionally turn on their sides and peer up at us. In the pod was a very young calf who playfully leaped out of the water a few times. I could have spent the rest of the day watching them, but unfortunately we had to head back to the dock. Bottlenose dolphins in this area get substantially larger than bottlenoses’ in other parts of the world, this is due to the much colder water they live in and the need to have more mass for warmth and survival. The dolphins here can get as big as 4 meters in length. Two other dolphin species live in or near the sound as well, the Dusky dolphin (Lagenorhychus cruciger) and the world’s rarest dolphin, Hectors dolphin (Cephalorhynchus). We also saw some New Zealand Fur Seals hanging out on the rocks. Although we didn’t see any, the sound is also home to two species of penguins the Crested Penguin and the Little Blue Penguin, as well as a variety of sea birds.

At one point Sue and I started chatting to the crew hand and found out that he once lived in San Rafael and even wanted to work at Guide Dogs! Yet another one of those “small world” moments.

The return trip on the bus was uneventful and thankfully it hadn’t snowed enough to require chains. We watched a wonderful New Zealand film, “Whale Rider” on the video screen in the bus. I had seen it a couple of times before but enjoyed it again, especially after having seen parts of the country with my own eyes. It was a long day and we had dinner and turned in fairly early.