The trip to Milford Sound
Or as it should rightly be called Milford Fiord.
We were up half an hour later than the previous day but it was still early and having a shower before a cup of coffee is no joke.
We were showered and breakfasted and out in the cold waiting for th E bus to arrive. In fact we were very glad he was a few minutes early. We then trawled the town for other likely participants before setting out on the road to Milford. The drive was very scenic, hugging the shore of Lake Te Anua for the first thirty kilometres and then climbing into the mountains, before going through the Homer Tunnel and dropping into the port of Milford, from pick up to port it was three hours.
We then had ten minutes to catch our boat, The Wanderer, a three sailed yacht, but unfortunately we did our two and a half hour cruise using the Diesel engine. We did see Fiordland Crested Penguins, Southern Fur Seals, that are not seals at all really as they are a variety of sea lion and an albatross.
The Sound is dramatic and we spent some time deciding whether we preferred Doubtful to Milford. Milford is much narrower and steeper but I think I preferred Doubtful which had an elegant beauty.
After the cruise we were back on the bus and after stopping for a walk around a Chasm and several photo stops we were back. Milford by 4.30pm. We went straight for a pint as both of us were feeling thirsty and we sat in the heat of the afternoon enjoying our beer on the pavement.
We had decided to go out for a meal as we had not. Been out alone since we were in Melbourne and so at seven o'clock we walked back I to town and eventually settled on an Italaina restaurant where we had a a really good meal.
We got back to the campsite at about 9.30 and settled down for the evening. We eventually decided it was bedtime and both is went to the loo, on our return we found an elderly German woman standing in the middle of the road turning around and round. Being the kind people we are we aske if we could help and she replied ,"64" which we took to be the number of her camp site. So here were were in the pitch black with no torch wandering around with a German who had no English looking for plot 64.
We strolled one way and asked a man outside his camper what number site his was, all the numbers are at the back of the plot and it was I possible to see them I the dark. He replied "Number One" so we were no better off ,ours fifty metres down the road was plot eighteen. We started to walk one way, and our now German captive started saying "Ni Ni Ni" so we rather assumed she wasn't recognising anything, so we turned 180 degrees and walked back. Joy of Joys our new  friend suddenly recognised her camper. We were very grateful and watched her carefully until she was inside, as no one threw her out we can only assume it was home.
Why is it these things keep happening to us. The Expedition Manager to give her her credit took immediate control of the situation and was very kind to the lady concerned despite the language barrier, neither of us has good German. However alls well that ends well.