After a night of torrential rain (and not much sleep) the alarm goes off at 05:40am. Firstly we check to see if we have been buried by a rock avalanche or swept away by the river (neither thankfully), then contemplate getting up and kayaking in this rain.
Eventually the time comes when we just have to do it and we make our way out of Betty to meet the guide. There is only one other couple mental enough for kayaking this morning as the others who had booked never made it in before the road closed last night (or wimped out).
We make our way down to Deepwater Basin to get kitted up in some tasteful thermals and spray jackets before we get into Rosco's shiny new sea kayaks. These Barracuda kayaks are different to our previous trips and are pretty fast. Soon we are zipping off down Milford Sound as a happy little bunch of three kayaks as the rain has finally stopped.
Milford sound is mightily impressive with 2000+m high mountains plunging vertically into the water, made even more impressive with the wispy clouds remaining halfway up the mountains. It is truly magical to be the only ones on the water apart from the birds and we silently glide down the south edge of the fjord looking at some of the massive waterfalls.
As we make our way further down the fjord we eventually spot the Stirling Falls. Its full 155m drop is put into perspective by the massive 8 story high cruise ship which looks like a toy boat underneath the falls.
We keep paddling down the south side of the fjord stopping off to look at some of the impressive scenery and dipping in and out of some of the waterfalls.
By now some of the many cruise boats have started making their way out but we have had well over an hour on our own on the water. Soon its time to head across to the opposite side of the fjord and go looking for some penguins as there are some Fiordland Crested Penguins that live in the sound. After a little searching we find a couple of the penguins just getting up and going out to catch a fishy breakfast.
Eventually the time has come for us to head back to the Deepwater Basin which turns out to be a bit of an effort to paddle against the out going tide and in coming rivers. We make it back around 1pm after about 16kms of paddling and head straight to the cafe for a well earned lunch.
This has been another one of our stand-out experiences in NZ.
Mr M
Eventually the time comes when we just have to do it and we make our way out of Betty to meet the guide. There is only one other couple mental enough for kayaking this morning as the others who had booked never made it in before the road closed last night (or wimped out).
We make our way down to Deepwater Basin to get kitted up in some tasteful thermals and spray jackets before we get into Rosco's shiny new sea kayaks. These Barracuda kayaks are different to our previous trips and are pretty fast. Soon we are zipping off down Milford Sound as a happy little bunch of three kayaks as the rain has finally stopped.
Milford sound is mightily impressive with 2000+m high mountains plunging vertically into the water, made even more impressive with the wispy clouds remaining halfway up the mountains. It is truly magical to be the only ones on the water apart from the birds and we silently glide down the south edge of the fjord looking at some of the massive waterfalls.
As we make our way further down the fjord we eventually spot the Stirling Falls. Its full 155m drop is put into perspective by the massive 8 story high cruise ship which looks like a toy boat underneath the falls.
We keep paddling down the south side of the fjord stopping off to look at some of the impressive scenery and dipping in and out of some of the waterfalls.
By now some of the many cruise boats have started making their way out but we have had well over an hour on our own on the water. Soon its time to head across to the opposite side of the fjord and go looking for some penguins as there are some Fiordland Crested Penguins that live in the sound. After a little searching we find a couple of the penguins just getting up and going out to catch a fishy breakfast.
Eventually the time has come for us to head back to the Deepwater Basin which turns out to be a bit of an effort to paddle against the out going tide and in coming rivers. We make it back around 1pm after about 16kms of paddling and head straight to the cafe for a well earned lunch.
This has been another one of our stand-out experiences in NZ.
Mr M
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