February 10-12, 2001 - Milford Sound / Queenstown
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| Green Parrots on the way to Milford Sound, New Zealand |
When I got up next morning, I bid a fond farewell to Nickolo because he's heading on north while Patrik and I will stay here for a few days. I headed toward the Milford Sound after that. On the way there, we saw some of the green mountain parrots that's supposed to be the smartest parrots in the world. They didn't do anything that made me a believer. We drove through this long narrow unlit dark tunnel and was surprised that the bus didn't scratch because there were huge tour buses that passed by within inches of our bus in the dark.
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| Milford Sound, New Zealand |
When we arrived, I saw a bunch of younger kids and they turned out to be some kids from a farm-stay group touring the country for 2 weeks. The ship departed from the dock and we sailed into mist and light rain. The fiord towered on both side of the ship, moss-covered and wet with cascades of water running down everywhere. It was actually pretty nice to be in a misty rain but a little depressing too.
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| Milford Sound, New Zealand |
The ship headed toward the Tasman Sea and it was bringing some big swells into the mouth of the fiord. We turned around after reaching the mouth and docked at a very calm sheltered bay. A bunch of us went kayaking and other people were fishing or took a small boat ride.
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| Crazy guys jumping into Milford Sound, New Zealand |
At the end of the kayaking, there were already a bunch of crazy guys jumping off the ship for a very very very cold swim. It's funny how different places remind you of home. The chilly air, salty tang in the air, and the misty fog reminded me of my trips up to Boston and Cape Cod. I ate dinner, played games with the group and then went to sleep in the wobbly ship.
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| Milford Sound, New Zealand |
There were some dolphin and seal sightings before breakfast next morning, which got everyone excited. We went back to the dock after that, which was swarming with these annoying biting sand flies. I returned to Queenstown this afternoon and talked to Patrik for a while.
Evan introduced me to one of our new roommies - Till from Germany. I chatted with Till for a long time while Patrik got showered and dressed and we went out for a bite to eat before heading back to the hostel again. Till is a graphic artist who promised to show me how to draw the Brazier curve when I visit him in Berlin.
Patrik's feet and shoes continued to stank up the whole room and I made him put his shoes outside. He finally admitted that they stink and imitated Fat Larry's deep "har har" laughter. He also got hungry at one point and found some moldy cheese in his backpack - he ate it.
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