Day 54- Milford Sound

We woke up early to get to Milford Sound, in Fjordland national park. The drive was only 120km, in 100 kph zones, but it took over 2 hours to get there, because the drive was too beautiful to speed through. We stopped on several occasions to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. Our drive took us through golden plains, rain swelled alpine creeks (which we drank from), moss covered rocks, and glacier topped mountain peaks. We eventually reached the sound, and hit yet another coincidence- Fabian and Jens, our two German companions, met two of their classmates here, literally halfway around the world from Germany. They ended up cruising the sound with us, which was one of the most fun experiences I have done here in NZ. As the ship went out into the sound, the wind immediately picked up. It continued to blow from a breeze to a gale to a force I had never felt before. Standing on the upper deck of the ship, one could lean over perhaps 20 or 30 degrees into the wind and stay balanced due to the force of it pushing on the front of the body. Several of the passengers decided to hop into the air, just to see if the wind would carry them. It certainly did- a vertical jump quickly became a frightening, exhilarating, and probably very stupid horizontal journey as the wind took the people and flew them like kites. They all landed safely only a few feet back, but a few looked as though they may take off for good. To get a taste of really how strong this wind was, two peculiar things happened. First, the wind was blowing across the water so hard that it was literally vaporizing the topmost water layer, then whisking it around and up away from the water line. Another thing that I saw that I never thought I would were waterfalls that went up. As water would fall over these peaks and descend into the sound, they often hit such strong wind that the water never made it to the bottom; they too would vaporize within a few meters of falling. Some waterfalls were in such windy spots, however, that as soon as the water crested over a ridge to fall, it would be blown straight up, creating a strange reverse waterfall. It just seemed to defy logic- it was a surreal feeling.

After the sound tour, we returned to Te Anau, but took a few stops along the way. One of these stops is the Chasm, an area where waterfalls have carved massive round holes into the side of the rock, resulting in pits of beautiful shapes, all covered in moss. As I was crossing the footbridge to overlook the chasm, I hear a voice behind me: “Are you from UNCW?”

No way.

I turn around to see a girl and guy my age, looking inquisitively at me. I then remembered that I was in fact wearing a teal UNCW move-in shirt, which would make me a target to seahawks a mile away. I spoke with these two, and found that one, Daniel, was a UNCW student- the other was a former student who had transferred to Maryland. Both of them lived in Seahawk Village, within sight of my apartment back home in Wilmington. Surely there are no coincidences.

On our return to Te Anau, we went back to our hostel to prepare dinner, where Fabian’s german friends check in. We all have dinner, and we meet a group of Brits who are heading along the same track we are, to Queenstown. During dinner (which by this point in the trip easily lasts 2 hours) we sat and had a conversation and discussion on whether denominations are a good thing in the Christian faith and tradition. It was a great conversation, because it included the viewpoints of 3 countries, 4 denominations, and both believers and non-believers alike. Everyone contributed, and the entire conversation was an open minded search for truth by all- it was one of those dinners that you wish could last all night.