Kayaking on Milford Sound

Agra is believedsite of an ancient Hindu Kingdom, but the city
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January 6, 2005:
We got up for at 6am for our next extreme adventure and rushed off to do some sea kayaking. The crew got us outfitted first thing in the AM. I was wearing thermal longjohns that had these cute little stripes on them-- red and yellow. Josh had blue and light blue. Less cute. Then we had wet pants over those and then the kayak skirt and then another fleece and... a lot of rediculous clothes that made you feel very silly before you even got in the boat.

Journal Continued:
Josh and I were sharing a kayak and there was a lengthy discussion about who would be steering the sea kayak. Once we have solved that problem, the sea kayaking was interesting and peaceful. You really cant go that far paddling along and the distances between the mountains are deceptive. Essentially, you paddle and paddle and paddle and you just go nowhere at all. You are still seeing the same scenery. You paddle some more... same scenery... paddle some more and still the same three mountains as you saw before. And then, when you are exhausted and it is time to turn back... you still see the same scenery.

Journal Continued:
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Journal Continued:
Yeah... in retrospect, I think that I would also want to take a boat ride in the power boats that do the length of the sound. At least that way you get to really see the distance of it. The nice thing about the kayaking is that you really get a sense of the height. Still, being just on the water is amazing... and you can look down into the depths with litterally only a thin piece of plastic between you and 300 meters of cold water and sharks and whales and more. The guide explained to us that since there was so much run off from the rivers at the time, the fresh water was about 10feet deep above the salt water which meant that the sharks wouldn't come up and take a peak at you to see if you were tasty. We only saw cold water sea lions corkscrewing around in the water very playfully looking for food.

Journal Continued:
I do sort of wish that a few whales had surfaced to see the little yellow boats that were skimming on the surface of the water. Though I was very glad that the sharks didn't show up for the afternoon.

Above: Flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers.

Right: The road into Milford Sound. Check out those steep mountains, and the mist rising from the valley floor.

Below: More glacially carved mountains.

Journal Continued:
When floating around out there on the fjord, I kept thinking about the hundreds of feet of water below me... just inches below me. AND thinking about how many thousands of fish were also down there. Usually, I am not atop a thousand feet of water.

Journal Continued:
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Left: icecream on the shores of the lake in Queenstown. Yummy!

Below: Drinks Anyone?

Journal Continued:
We finally pulled into the shore again at the end of the kayaking adventure. We were tired, and hungry and we still had a four hour drive back to Queenstown. Fortunately, by now I could drive that route asleep. By the time we made it to Queenstown, there was just enough time to have my favorite flatbread at the Italian restaurant and have a nice rest before taking off again for Wanaka.

Journal Continued:
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