The next day we had our only all-day formal tour to Milford Sound. We started very early at. 7:30am and almost left without Justin as he was grabbing coffee. Fortunately, it all worked out and our tour guide, Rob, picked is up in a van and we were on our way. Rob was a super entertaining guide. He was a little snarky, but informative and we liked him instantly. We were pretty thrilled we found a small 15 person tour instead of the big coach bus of 30+ people too. The drive to Milford was 3 hours so we made a couple stops at a cafe, waterfall, and lookout points. It was nice to breakup the drive. There were pretty things to see along the way too!

Around noon we stopped in a valley along a creek for lunch. It was a picturesque area, but swarmed by mosquito-like flies. We explored a bit, but then went inside to get away from the bugs.

Rob made us a delicious BBQ lunch with chicken, beef, and sausage. We had our fill, and then headed to Milford. As we arrived at the port, it was pretty cloudy, but we were excited for our boat ride through the sound. We ran on the boat to the front top area next to the captain to have the best views. We also made friend it’s a couple American girls on our tour who sat with us. The boat ride was great, but chilly and cloudy at first. The sound is surrounded by green mountains and cliffs that are just beautiful. The captain even took the boat under a waterfall where on brave kid tried to stay on the bow and got soaked. It was pretty entertaining.

About half way through the ride, the sun came out! The fjord in sunlight was truly breathtaking. The water glistened, the green mountains framed the water perfectly, and the sun warmed everything up! It was a dream! We took so so many photos. Also got to see a few seals and dolphins!

After the boat ride we had our long drive back. Fortunately, Rob entertained us with a New Zealand movie called Hunt For The Wilderpeople which was hilarious. Sam Neil from Jurassic Park is in it along with the kid from Deadpool 2. We laughed a lot. The drive went by fast and we went to dinner at BlueKanu, a Polynesian fusion place that was amazing. On the walk to dinner we saw some ducks along the water, a woman walked by and in a noble-sounding accent said “hi duck, I just ate you and you were delicious”. It made us laugh. We ordered a bunch of plates to share with the best being duck nachos (we decided this is what the woman was taking about) and ceviche. It was delicious and we went to bed afterwards.