Day 20 - Thursday 2nd October

The routine for this morning was to have our bags ready at 7:15am, breakfast in the hotel restaurant and departure at 8:15am. The forecast was for showers. It was cloudy but there was little rain so far.

When we got on board the bus, Michael took the microphone and told an amusing anecdote about mistakenly believing that it was Graham's birthday yesterday. He'd searched to find Graham's favourite food only to find out it was actually Allan's birthday and so he gave the cupcake to Allan.

Our hotel destination for the day was to be Te Anau. We reached the town in the morning and, because it was early by hotel standards, the bus dropped us in town so we could go to a cafe for morning tea. Meanwhile the bus took our bags to the hotel. Naturally the girls found a gift shop.

While Suzy was still shopping, Yolanda, Peter and I walked down to the lake. Once again, it is a beautiful setting - a vaste lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Although there weren't many people on the shore, we noticed one couple who had a pet dog and a pet lamb.

The bus picked us up again at 11:45 for our trip to Milford Sound. Along the way, there were several stops to take photos.

The first photo stop was on a straight stretch of road next to a wide grassland area with views of snow-capped mountains in each direction. The sign labelled it as Eglinton Valley Viewpoint.

The next stop was at Mirror Lakes. As the name suggests, these are lakes that give an excellent reflection in the water when the water is still. The bus dropped us at one entrance and moved to pick us up at the other entrance. In between, we walked next to the lakes through the bush on a boardwalk.

Next we stopped at Knobbs Flat which has a building providing facilities for campers. There are strict rules for people coming into the national park - including only using toilets at the locations provided by the Department of Conservation.

As usual there was great scenery from the bus. At one stage, the driver slowed down on a small bridge so we could take photos of a waterfall next to the bridge.

At the next stop, there was another tourist coach. Someone pointed out that there was a Kea (a native New Zealand bird) on top of that bus and so we crowded around to take photos of it. I'm not sure if the bus driver realised what all the fuss was about.

There is a long narrow tunnel, Homer Tunnel, that takes the road through the mountain to get to the Milford Sound area. They have traffic lights at each end to allow traffic in one direction at a time.

On the other side of the tunnel, the road winds down the side of the mountains. It was an eerie scene - low clouds, steep rugged rock faces, waterfalls and lush vegetation in the valley.

The next stop was at The Chasm. Here we walked for about 20 minutes through the bush on gravel tracks, boardwalks and bridges to admire the bushland setting. In the carpark there several more Keas who seemed happy for us to take photos of them.

We reached Milford Sound soon after 2:30pm. The boat trip was booked for 3pm. The bus parked at the wharf area where there is a large terminal building and several wharfs.

Although it was still cloudy, the showers were decreasing. Because of the lack of sunlight, the water was a grey colour. I guess it would be quite a sight on a bright sunny day. At least the clouds added interest to the scenery.

The waterway has huge steep cliffs on both sides and there was snow on many of the peaks. There were numerous waterfalls on both sides. The captain steered the boat right up to the edge of the cliff underneath one of these waterfalls.

The boat had a large capacity for customers over three levels. There were plenty of spare seats because there weren't too many passengers on board apart from our tour group.

It was comfortable inside but the best place to take photos was on the top deck. The downside was that the top deck was cold, windy and slippery. We were well rugged up while on the top deck.

We sailed out of Milford Sound and into the Tasman Sea before turning around to head back the way we came. By this time, there was some blue sky out to sea. On the way back, we saw more waterfalls and seals on rocks near the cliffs.

We were back to wharf at 4:40pm and the bus drove us back to Te Anau on the same route as we'd come. This time there were no stops for photo opportunities. We reached the Te Anau Hotel at 6:30pm.

The hotel staff greeted us with a welcome drink. Our bags were already in our room and so we didn't have to wait to unpack and get ourselves organised. Our room was near the end of a long corridor on level 2. It was a great room with a view of the lake. It had a large double bed and a bright modern bathroom.

On the other hand, the hotel's WiFi was only available in the foyer - not in the rooms. There was a desk in the room but no chair - only a stool. There was also no air conditioning.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant at 7:30pm. It was an elegant and tasteful setting. However, the meal only consisted on tasting plates for all courses followed by dessert and coffee.