Milford Sound and Dunedin

After a relaxing day on Queenstown our last day was spent at Milford Sound. It was so cool. The bus ride was so crazy. We went through som wild curves and mountains. Then we headed thru a tunnel to the other side of a fiord and it was long and dark. Our bus driver had us all close our eyes at the end and then open them all at once. The view was spectacular. Our bus had glass panels for a roof so we got a great view of the snow capped mountains.

When we finally got to the sound we boarded our ferry and headed into the cold wind in the fiord. The bluffs looked maybe 100 or so feet high. Come to find out they were twice as high as the Empire State Building! We finally believed the captain when a plane flew through the fiord and it was so incredibly tiny!

All the students, and I, were hoping to see some marine life and we did see 8 fur seals, but no dolphins or penguins :(

We had a fun chat with a guy from Chile about sky diving and canyon swinging (the students did this the two previous days) and he was glad he was unable to sky dive. The volcano in Chile stopped 6 of our students from sky diving and although they were bummed, they were happy they got refunds and now have more spending money than they would have had.

Today we had a short bus ride to Dunedin. This is our last stop on our New Zealand portion of the trip. The students are getting antsy about going to Australia. They can't wait! I can't wait either. It will be so great. The walk to the hotel was less than desirable....up hill but really up hill!

Tomorrow a big group is going to the Speights brewery for a tour and free beverages. A few of them are going with me to meander around town taking photos and shopping. There is a Cadbury factory here but they don't make the fun candy, just bricks of chocolate. On Monday we have an eco tour that should be really awesome. Tomorrow is father's day here but not yet in the states. We have to wait until Monday to all call our dads :). There will be many a busy phone that day! Tuesday we head to Sydney and the excitement is building!