NZ - Milford Sounds

The next morning we got up horribly early to catch our bus to Milford Sounds. We decided to do a tour instead of drive there ourselves because it is a 10hr return trip to Queenstown. We went on the KiwiExperience which turned out to be really fun. We met a really nice girl called Eve and had a cool bus driver and seats at the front so we could sit back and admire the views. It was slightly concerning on the journey there because it looked like this outside: i.e. poor visibility which would be rubbish for Milford Sounds. Apparently though, the Fiordland NP is the size of Wales so we did some positive thinking about good weather up north.
Our bus:

Mirror lakes:

Stops on the journey there:

Feeding the Kia:

The positive thinking paid off, it was sunny at Milford Sounds which was very lucky considering they have 183days of rain a year there! We had a buffet lunch on the boat before going up deck and enjoying the views. The sounds are a fiord which means they were created by a glacier. What makes them so different is the angle at which the mountains rise out of the sea and their height. They are quite amazing:

Us with Eve:

Near the end of the boat trip we were dropped off at an underwater observatory. Apparently there is a layer of about 10m of fresh water on top of the salt water in the sound which stays there because the lack of flow out to sea caused by a wier blocking the entrance. Because of the fresh water less light gets through and so the conditions in the sound replicate those of deep sea but at only 10m depth. Due to this, deep sea coral can grow, particularly black coral, at 10m so they built an underwater observatory so that everyone can see it. I think that's quite cool but the observatory did cost $5million dollers and the black coral wasn't that exciting!

Here it is, I realise it is in fact white:

Back on the boat:

After the boat trip we all piled back on to the coach and had a very long, sleepy drive back to Queenstown. I wasn't feeling 100% so I had an early night, attempted to get some sleep (impossible in Base) and left Alexa to go partying with Alexa and Hayden.