Happy September!
Today we were in for a beautiful adventure. We woke up early and got all bundled up to jump in the RV with Ian and Lauren and head down to the meet up for our kayaking adventure near the sound. Immediately upon meeting our guide, I could tell this bro was not from New Zealand. We quickly learned that JD was actually from Iowa! We didn't get into to much chit chat because we were too busy preparing for our trek. There were only 6 of us on the tour for the day - our group of 4 and then 2 twins from Boston/San Francisco.
The first order of business was attire. The company we booked with was Roscoe's and they really set you up. JD started by giving us all thermal base layers which were basically elf costumes. We changed by putting the girls on one side of the room and the boys on the other side and pulling a tarp curtain in between us. Lauren and I looked awesome - but the boys looked even better in their leggings. On top of the thermals we were also given yellow jackets, spray skirts and pog gloves.
JD gave us a quick lesson on paddling, hand signals and safety procedures before loading up into the 2 man kayaks and heading out into the sound. I must give Andrew HUGE props because my hands were so frozen that I did nothing but take pictures. Cold hands is my arch nemesis - it's basically the equivalent of total organ failure for me. I just completely shut down.
Everyone always says to prepare for the cloudiness of Milford Sound - but we lucked out HUGE. It was a gorgeous blue sky day and the water was very calm. The first half of our paddle was in the shade along the shore where we saw seals chilling on rocks, one single penguin, and a ginormous waterfall.
Mid-paddle, we all joined boats and had lunch in the middle of the channel (in the sun). Nothing like some sun and a sandwich to bring you back to life! The rest of the paddle I regained a little feeling and verbal ability and we chatted it up with JD who had a very interesting background. He too had actually lived in Hawaii for a bit before adventuring over to New Zealand. He was very excited for me and my spontaneous life change and gave me some encouragement while wishing me the best.
Our paddle ended through a marsh chilling with some ducks and then back onshore. I don't know where Ian and Andrew decided along the way, but before I knew it they were heading over to the dock to polar plunge into the water in their stripped thermals. I was not about to join as I wanted to save whatever warmth I had.
Once changed, we headed back to the holiday park to meet up with Jason and Emily who had gone on the boat cruise farther out into the channel. They actually saw us at one point but obviously we were too far away to have any interaction. Ian and Lauren were headed off for their next adventure of the trip, so we said our goodbyes and headed back towards Te Anua.
Our guide JD had mentioned that a storm was coming and that Milford Sound deals with a lot of extreme weather. The tunnel that we traveled through that comes into the sound is known to close at any time for any reason making the coming and going for tourists rather unpredictable. That being the case, we decided to get out quick before we had to deal with any issues.
Andrew was driving and so I finally sat up front to entertain him with my horrible music selection and wonderful singing. It is so crazy sitting in the typical American "drivers seat" but having no steering wheel and driving on the left side of the road. Once we got to Te Anua, we loaded up on groceries again (we eat a lot) and did some water tank cleaning (I did not help, I played on the swings) and then headed back north towards Queenstown.
It was getting dark and we didn't really pay much attention to the gas reading, but rolled into a gas station with about 15-20 km left in the tank. Emily and Jason went and got us meat pies while we pumped gas and then we continued on towards the Devil's Staircase pass along Lake Wakatipu. We attempted and failed multiple times to find a place to stop and camp and finally just decided to keep driving in the dark for a bit until we found a confirmed camp site on the map.
Not until we hit the turn, did we realize the campsite was actually up the sketchy switchback path we weren't supposed to go on that had taken us to Cardrona the other day. Having already experienced it once, we decided YOLO and headed up the switchbacks.
The camp we settled on was one of the scenic pull off viewpoints along the switchbacks and we joined several other RVs for what we knew was a cliff side camp. Despite our secluded location, Emily, as always, cooked up and awesome meal of lamb and potatoes and we hung around chatting inside before heading to bed.
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