Morning on the water in Milford Sound
18 January 2018
Yesterday was a lovely day, with the afternoon and evening spent on the water in Milford Sound, and this morning I got to wake up in our little cabin on the Milford Mariner. Quickly I got dressed and headed up for breakfast as the Milford Mariner starts heading out towards the open sea.
Dawn breaking on the water in Milford Sound.
It was absolutely lovely to have breakfast with the sun slowly rising as the boat started down the Sound with the amazing high cliffs of Milford Sound slowly going past.
Exploring the bridge as we headed down the Sound.
After breakfast I headed outside to watch the Milford Sound go past as the Milford Mariner headed out to the open sea, a trip of 16 kilometers.
The weather was again fantastic with no rain and plenty of sun breaking through the clouds.
Overnight the Milford Mariner picked up another passenger, wonder how long he will last once the enginees start
Captain getting close to the waterfalls again.
Once out in the open sea the waves really began to rock the boat – great fun for me, but not for Julianne who gets motion sickness super easily.
Julianne looking into the open sea
A rainbow reaching out from the coast to the open sea.
And our seal is still on the back of the moving boat.
The boat then turned around for the journey back through Milford Sound to the harbour.
A seal hopped on the back of the Milford Mariner overnight, which was a surprise. What was evening more surprising was the fact that once the boat started up, instead of departing he just hopped up from the platform onto the steps for a trip up and down Milford Sound. I do love how NZ's wildlife has no fear of mammals including us people, you just don't get that in other countries.
Looking back at Milford Sound.
In Milford Sound there is an underwater observatory, where you can get under the water and instead of a human controlled environment like in Kelly Tartons – it is the natural beauty of the Sound where the wildlife are living out their normal lives.
I had arranged for our trip to include a visit to this underwater observatory and only two other people joined us – I don’t understand why someone would want to miss out on the opportunity to visit this amazing underwater attraction, especially after all the time it takes getting to and from Milford Sound. So you get to see these rare deep sea creature just below the waves.
You get to go down this spiral staircase 10 meters under the water of the Sound. Another reason that makes Milford Sound so special is that there’s approximately 6 meters of fresh water that sit on top of the ocean water, which blocks out the light making it uniquely ideal for deep sea life to thrive even in shallow waters.
And it’s nice to see the people contained and the fish free to travel as the please around us.
And yes the seal was still there.
Picking up our bags from our little overnight cabin.
The people from the underwater observatory have a shuttle which took us back to the harbour, where we went back to the Milford Mariner to get our bags.
Once back on the mainland we had a few hours to wait, so I explored a bit again before we jumped on a bus to head out to the Routeburn Great Walk, which starts on the drive out of Milford Sound.
Milford Sound harbour
