Close Encounters in New Zealand

An interesting, non-typical day.
After a great breakfast in this wonderful Fiordland Lodge, we were of to Milford Sound once more.

The view in the morning from Fiordland Lodge

Rain

We had a lovely morning, but it started raining soon after we hit the road. The road was even worse than yesterday: the rain kept on coming down. The nice thing about that is that all these ad hoc waterfalls in the scenic reserve were fed enough water to come to their full potential. We split tasks: I tried to keep the car on the road, and Vicky told me how nice these waterfalls are :-)

The waterfalls near Homer Tunnel - Fiordland Reserve

Milford Sound

We had booked a small cruise on the Milford Sound (a fjord, opening to the Tasman Sea). Despite the rather low visibility, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic guide, Nick. He warned us that we should keep cameras ready and get on the bow of the ship when he told us, as he had met a surprise on sailing in. And yes, we had not left the harbour for more than 20 minutes when he called us in the wheelhouse and we could have a first look at this pod of Dolphins: a mix of Dusky Dolphins and Common Dolphins. The pod remained with the boat for 20 minutes. Some of them even started swimming just in front of the bow, while the ship was at high speed. Vicky made a small film, so if that has worked out fine, we’ll have it on youtube shortly.

Dolphins in Milford Sound

On deck

So you can imagine, this photo-geek standing on the bridge – soaked wet from the rain and the water that came over the bow. Nothing could make me any wetter than I was at that time. We encountered some fur seals on the way back, making a great day complete. We had not seen any of the mountains but felt we had a great tour with lots of unexpected things happening. This part of the Unesco world heritage has stolen our heart, and on the next visit to New Zealand we will definitely make more time in the Sounds area.

Koen Blanquart

Koen Blanquart is a strategy consultant, journalist, and author.
Wanderlust is one of his driving factors, and he shares his travels here on Boarding Today. Koen is also the skipper of SV Bagabonda, a sailing vessel making a slow circumvention of the globe..
Koen recently published a book on how to manage a remote team: The Suitcase Office.

More about Koen on his website: koenblanquart.com

koenblanquart.com