So we had a rest day on the Saturday (well – the rest of the trip) and headed to Milford Sound.
Now here’s an interesting thing. Ish. Milford Sound isn’t a sound at all. By rights it should be called Milford Fjord (which just doesn’t run off the tongue so well), as it’s a glaciated feature covered by the sea – not an alluvial one (happy Thomas?).
Either way it’s damn purty. So had a cruise through there. We met one of the girls from the Kepler – Rachel – and she came along too.
So twas quite the party. So much so that a pod of dolphins came out and played on the bow-wave of our boat. It’s the second time I’ve been close – last time was swimming with them on the coast of Ireland about 5 years ago with my friend Katie (between Doolin and Fanore).
(picture by Glynn)
They’re just the best creatures ever! I’d forgotten how happy they make you feel! If there’s such a thing as reincarnation – then I wanna be a dolphin. For sure.
We also went to the underwater observatory there. It’s quite a unique place (as is pretty much everything in NZ). There’s so much rain in this part of the S.Island – that the Fjord has a freshwater layer on top of the salty sea water. This has the effect of darkening the water. Which in turn means that it’s one of the shallowest (if not the shallowest) places that Black Coral can grow.
(picture by Glynn)
Yes, I know it looks white – but the stem is black. And when it dies all the pollips (the white living bits!) die off – and it all turns black.
Anyway – all in all it was a great day out. Totally majestic scenery. I knew it was one of the places that I had to get to. But now I really know it!
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