Milford Sound Feb 4th

We left Queenstown at 8am once again on a local bus with a running commentary from the driver. It was raining and cold for the first time on our trip. It turned out to be a big bonus. As we drove towards the Southern Alps it started to clear we saw waterfalls that were gone the following day cloud cover that was beautiful on the mountains rivers flowing full and a few landslides that did not effect us. Once again we drove through different scenery at every turn. Our final approach to Milford Sound was a 1.5km tunnel with through sheer rock with no supports that was man made without any machinery in the 40's By the time we boarded our sail ship at 4pm the sun was shining as we sailed out thru the Fjord towards the Tasman Sea. The wind was very strong it was brilliant standing on the upper deck. Due to high wind we could not go out on the Ocean that night we did go out early the following morning with the sails up it was quite rough with a good swell. We sailed around the Fjord until the sun set at 10pm it was majestic and once again due to the earlier rain the waterfalls were everywhere. We saw seals and dolphins but no Penguins I was hoping to see them. When night time fell I went up on deck to see the Southern Cross and as an added bonus saw the Milky Way too. I was alone on the upper deck with the wind howling I loved it. Kevin got up a 5am to do his star gazing by then it was less windy. We were back on shore mid morning and set off to Queenstown for another night. The waterfalls we saw on the way down were now frozen it had snowed during the night and the temperature dropped below freezing. Back in Queenstown it was a chilly 12c the weather changes very fast. On Feb 6th the same cruise we took was cancelled due to a Tsunami warning caused by the Solomon Islands earth quake. Every hotel has earth quake instructions at first I was bothered thinking what if one happens now I am fine it is a way of life here people are very casual about it all. Mary Rose