Kayaking Milford Sound

I already put up some photos of my kayaking trip through Milford Sound, but I'll just tell you a little bit about it, since the photos of course can't tell the whole story. And neither can I in this little space either, but it will be a good supplement, I hope. We started off a little after 8 in the morning, Anne being whisked off with her group and me being picked up with mine a few minutes later. We went down to the waterfront, where all of my planning of gear and clothes to bring was quickly deemed irrelevant, since we were given an entirely new set of clothing, from long underwear on up. We stripped down there amidst the fishing boats, gratefully putting on the thermals and other layers provided to us. Lets see if I can remember them all: thermals, neoprene vest, waterproof jacket, life jacket, spray skirt, fleece winter hat, sun hat, and a polarfleece to bring along in case you got cold and wanted another layer. Whew! I think the only things that I packed that I actually brought along were my cameras and my lunch. Oh. And sunscreen, of course. We got all trained in about what to do if you tip and all that jazz, and then we hopped into our boats and headed off. Meredith, you would have been excited about our whole fleet of Amaruks. I thought of you and your Amaruk love as I admired all their graceful lines and bright colors against the dark water and stark mountainsides of the the fiord. We had a sunny day for our kayaking, which was quite exciting. It had been a while since they'd had a good rain, and our guide, Will, was amazed at how clear the water was since it hadn't been stirred up in so long. We could see anemones, fish, sea urchins and even a sea cucumber under the water as we paddled beside the cliffs. And a fur seal popped up not 10 meters from the kayak that I was paddling with Peter, eating a fish! I think you've all guessed how excited I am about the seals here, so that was special. I hadn't seen one eating yet. We also saw Bowen Falls, which was quite the impressive waterfall. Our guide pointed out Sterling Falls off in the distance, which looked only a kilometer or so away, but was actually 8 kilometers off. I think the scale of the peaks throws of my perception of distance. It is hard to imagine anything quite that massive, so I underestimate their heights and distances. We passed Mitre Peak, which looked to me like any of the other peaks, but it is a famous one. I guess because it looks like a Mitre, thus the name. A Mitre is a hat that some of those Catholic guys wear. I think maybe its the bishops. Will also told us the Maori legend of how the fiords were created. Tui (I am guessing on spelling here), the god who was a tatoo artist, was chosen to create the 14 fiords along the southwest coast of New Zealand. He started at teh bottom and by the time he'd arrived at the top and created Milford Sound, he was so well practiced, that he had perfected his art and created the perfect fiord. By the way, Milford Sound is misnamed. A sound is a valley carved by a river (which usually ends up being V shaped) that sinks below sea level and fills with sea water. A fiord is a valley carved by a glacier (which is usually U shaped) that fills up with seawater. Fiordland National Park is all fiords, including Milford Sound! Basically, we had a wonderful day cruising around, just being amongst the mountains, being impressed by the steep mountainsides as they dropped down into the ocean and admiring the trees who are able to hang onto them. We did have one little adventure, when one of the cruise ships sent up big waves from their wake as they passed near by us. We did as we were supposed to do, paddling into it and then backpaddling to let ourselves ride over it, but I don't think it quite worked. I also think that the spray skirts were only designed to keep out spray, not enormous waves washing over top of our kayak. I guess I gasped a bit as all that cold water gushed into my seat, because Peter asked whether I'd gotten too wet. I told him I was sitting in quite a bit of water, but no worries. it wasn't as if it was enough to swamp us or anything, obviously. When we got out at lunch, we pulled up on the beach and I was in front, so I hopped out to pull the kayak up further for him to get out and he burst out laughing because as soon as I got up, a whole sheet of water flowed down from my butt where I'd been sitting in that inch-deep puddle. He said he didn't realize that I was serious when I told him how much water I was sitting in from the wave. We all had a nice lunch on the pebbley beach. I ate part of it lying on my front, trying to get the sun to dry out the seat of my thermals a bit. I gave that up pretty quickly though, because if you've ever tried eating crackers loaded up with toppings lying on your front (or your back, for that matter), you will know that it is not an easy task. On our way back, we saw a white heron, a grey heron and a small black shag in the shallow grassy area by the entrance to the harbor. Anne and I both made the bus without incident and had a nice, relaxing ride back to Queenstown. More updates soon...