Tommy & Rhonda's Travels

Awake in the Milford Sound early to the sound of rain, this was not the start to the day we had hoped for. We headed to get some breakfast and bought some eggs and a loaf of bread at the little store and cooked up some breakfast before the trip. The trip was going rain or shine and unfortunately for us, totally raining. We follow the guide from the lodge to the start of our kayak trip and get outfitted in all kinda of stuff for the trip. Long underwear, a long underwear top, a fleece, a very bright orange wind jacket, a kayak skirt thingy, a wool hat and another hat on top of that. We aren’t going to get cold I don’t think but it is cold and wet. Oh, we also got some pogies. Yup, I didn’t know what they were either but they go around your paddle and you put your hands in and it keeps your hands warm. After a safety briefing and all that jazz, we finally hit the water. We are off to kayak with penguins, dolphins and seals. So pumped. We can’t see the peaks that are just breathtaking b/c it’s so foggy and wet, we can’t see much. Not how I dreamed this trip up but still amazing none the less. We kayak, and kayak, and canoe (as Rhonda puts it) hoping to see the previous mentioned but no dice for a while. Finally, there is a seal just swimming, minding his own business a few feet away from the kayak. Very cool. A little bit later, there is a penguin…SWEET! What we came for. We only see his face and he goes under but surely he will come up and we will get a great look and sweet picture. Well, we are still waiting…he just disappeared and would be the only penguin all day. No sign of dolphins. The weather clears up a bit for us and pretty much stops raining but it isn’t the ideal day to be out. We head across the sound to a beach for lunch and get attacked by sandflies. These little bitches are a pain. They are totally annoying, there are millions of them and they bite! #@$%$#% sandflies! We finish up lunch, we can see a lot more now and paddle back…we paddle right up to Bowen falls, a 164 meter high waterfall….WOW! AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL and really cool to be in a kayak. We paddle around and head back and the trip is over. What a great experience but I’ll have to say disappointment with the lack of wildlife compared to what we thought we would see. Also disappointment with the weather and the fact the good cameras and video camera stay in the car b/c of the weather so the only pics are from the underwater camera. Hopefully some of them turn out good. We get some dry clothes on and head back out on the road to Queenstown. The drive back is really beautiful; the weather is great as well. We arrive back in Q town about 7 or so and check back into the Crowne Plaza. It is our last night in Q town and we are sad to be leaving such a wonderful, beautiful place. We get all cleaned up and head out for dinner. We can’t really decide what we want and finally decide on a place called Lone Star. I had read somewhere they had really good nachos and they sounded kind of good but we ended up just ordering a regular entrée and some delicious hot bread to start with. We had the Johnny Cash chicken and split it. We had heard the portions were huge and our waiter confirmed that. Good thing we did split it, it was HUGE. 2 huge chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and slaw. Very delicious and we had a good, kinda healthy meal…a great choice. We were pretty tired after a day of kayaking and the long drive back so we stopped off at an internet café to check a few things on the way home. The #1 thing was to try and figure out if our hotel in Christchurch was open…we found out it had just opened so that made us feel better. I checked the college football scores as well and saw Arizona beat Ucla so that was nice as well. We finished up there and headed back to the hotel and hung out for a bit and went to bed.