South Island Day 6

Today was a day that we had all been looking forward to…Milford Sound! We had been blessed with such perfect weather thus far, but rain was in the forecast for the entire day. But that ended up being in our favor because the rain created hundreds of waterfalls pummeling down the huge cliffs surrounding us. Once we parked our car, we dressed in our rain gear, fully prepared to have a very wet day and we doused ourselves in bug spray. We had heard that the sandflies were awful in the Milford Sound area…and they were! But thankfully we were covered in head to toe to keep warm & dry so we all managed to escape major bug bites. On our walk to the boat, we spied a kea (an alpine parrot) in the carpark. Ethan was most excited because that had been on his bucket list!

Since it was raining, most people stayed inside or on the covered decks. Trevor was not happy to be on the boat, but the rest of us made the best of a dreary day and enjoyed the amazing waterfalls, towering cliffs, and lounging  seals. At one point, the captain of the boat drove us right into a waterfall and Cody was out on deck getting the whole thing on our GoPro while getting completely drenched! 

After getting warm and dry, we headed back on the road to our hotel. Some of us were brave enough to get out in the rain to check out another place called The Chasm along the way. Mike and Lois had not yet experienced a kiwi meat pie, so we stopped at a little town to have delicious pies for dinner. The kids had fun shopping at a little souvenir store where Gavin got his favorite souvenir of the trip…a stuffed black alpaca (llama). Ethan had gotten a brown alpaca earlier on in our trip and they were so excited to reunite the alpaca cousins! Our boys are hilarious! 

We were all so exhausted after another long day of traveling that we didn't make it to midnight to ring in the New Year. But, we did a pretty good job at ringing out the old year with a bang.