Fjord, we checked ourselves into the only available accommodation, the imaginatively titled “Milford Sound Lodge”, a hostel with quite pleasant parking spaces for campervans next to the river at the back, and use of all the hostel’s well equipped (and most importantly, warm) facilities!!

Almost right on cue, as morning turned into afternoon, the clouds began to shift and the sun came out for the first time in a while. So with lifted sprits we ventured on foot down to the Sound to check it out bathed in sunshine! I was pretty surprised at just how big the mountains around the water were - the most impressive being the snow capped Mitre Peak, named for it’s resemblance to a bishop’s hat. Although the view was pretty impressive from here we’d learned from various sources that it was nothing compared to what could be seen from a boat cruise, and we’d also learned from our own

experience that if the weather is good, it’s best to move fast!! With that in mind we went to the boat jetty and looked around the various companies offering boat trips. The ones later in the day were cheaper, and usually less busy, as they were to late for the hoards of coach tours which arrive in the middle of the day, but is was pretty quiet generally, and the one we picked only had seven people booked on it. This was still the case until 5 minutes before it departed, when a minibus turned up, but there was still only about twenty people on a seventy seater boat, and we managed to get prime position at the front of the boat.

The journey started off by revealing the huge Lady Bowen Falls, the presence of which had been hinted at by the clouds of spray visible from the shoreline!! The journey was extremely reminiscent of our Norway voyage on the NordNorge, hardly surprising as it was a fjord!! We