Milford Sound Overnight Cruise

We were up and out of our hotel early in the morning and on the road to drive as close as we could get to the coastal bays.  The drive was breathtaking with steep mountain peaks and lush green forests and pastures.  We live in Utah right next to beautiful mountains but these mountains seemed to rise straight up right next to pastures.  

We drove about 2 hours and then boarded a large ferry that would take us out to our actual boat and the actual fiords.  I guess it makes sense we'd been driving past mountain ranges with such steep walls and that's what makes the fiords possible too.

We ate our bag lunches and played cards for the short ride.

And then took a crazy bus ride over the only semi-paved road through the national park and arrived at our next ride.  For New Year's Eve Taylor's dad booked us on an overnight cruise through Fiordlands National Park.  It's really the only way to see it since it's so isolated.  

There weren't enough solo rooms left when we booked so part of our group ended up downstairs in the backpackers rooms.  Bunk beds and curtains instead of doors.  Does it look like these adventurous souls mind?  They're pretty excited actually.

And shared showers with, you guessed it, curtains too!  How fun!

Luckily there was 1 room upstairs for Isla and I.  I tend to get very motion sick and have spent a good part of every family cruise puking my guts out.  So it was nice to have my own tiny bathroom in my own private room and wouldn't have to climb down off a bunk and run to a shared bathroom.  It was also nice to know Isla wouldn't wake others up if she cried or get woken up by loud partying on New Year's Eve.  Taylor slept down with the boys that night but as soon as we got on and got settled, he laid down with Isla so she'd take a nap.  He's still the sandman in our house.  Doesn't look like Isla minds hanging out with him.

And while they napped the boys and I explored the main deck.  This 24 hours on the ship was actually my favorite family time of the whole trip.  It was just so relaxing to all be locked together in such tight space.  Plus they had a bunch of games so we really ended up hanging out and talking and playing and just enjoying each others company instead of touring and rushing around like the other days.

Plus the food was fantastic and who'd complain with unlimited piping hot hot chocolate.

After a little snack we were given the option of getting on the boat to either kayak around a little bay or ride on a smaller boat to explore the shoreline more closely.  It was pouring rain off and on so we all donned rain jackets and life preservers.  And since my boys are too little to kayak and quite honestly I was too cold and wet already to even want to kayak, we went on the small boat.

Rain or shine, it's an adventure with these little boys.

Looking back on our little boat.  There were probably 75 people on board and 25 or so crew members.  Very tight and very quaint.

Our first stop was to visit the Blanket Bay Hotel.  It's not actually a hotel at all and really just one room that sticks out fully over the water.  Apparently when the storms in the ocean really kick up, the commercial ships have to look for shelter in the fiords and they can be stranded there quite a while.  They petitioned the government at some point to let them build a small house so they could get off their ships.  The government refused since they're all about keeping this National Park pristine, but they found a loophole since the National Park technically ends at the waterline.  So they just built a structure that at high tide is not even an inch on the surface.  

We got closer to one of the literally thousands of waterfalls we saw.

And our nature guide helped explain all the natural flora and fauna.  It was fascinating to me... not so much to the little boys.

But at least there were little birds to entertain them although they blended very well with the shoreline.

And there were lots of kayakers to watch too.

There's Arty and Esther.  Barb and Clint went out too.

And then Clint was crazy enough to go swimming.

Back on board the babies woke up and it was time to start heading as close to the south pole as we could get. 

We stopped to put our hands in some of the waterfalls.  This park is literally a rain forest because it rains so much and there were THOUSANDS of waterfalls everywhere we looked.

Some big and cascading, and some just small little streams down the steep mountains.

The water in the fiord was very calm and almost lake-like but as we got closer to the ocean, the waves got gigantic and the swells were over 10 feet tall.  Which was a lot considering we were in that tiny boat.  I was fine at the beginning with just some dramamine and then I spent almost an hour outside in the wind and rain just trying to look forward and not lose my cookies.

Once we were out in open water, we stopped close by several big rocks where fur seals were breeding.  If we'd come in the winter we might have seen penguins on their way to Antarctica.

There were tons of seals.

And it was pretty neat to see them up close.

All the others came out on deck to see them closer.  Luckily Taylor doesn't get sick at all so he could take care of all the kids.

And then I was grateful we started heading back in the fiord.  Waterfalls everywhere.

Once I felt a little better we all ventured out to explore the ship.  I love these cuties.  They make every day an adventure.

We visited the captain and learned about how the ship works.

And then we came down for an amazing 3 course meal and lots more games and hanging out together.  Then it was time to sleep and thankfully we were all so exhausted it didn't matter where we were sleeping, we all just passed out.

The next morning there were more beautiful views to see.

And since the rain had passed it was breathtaking to see the clouds in amongst the mountains.

See all those waterfalls?  Just amazing.

And more games with the family.

Amazing to see how steep these mountains are.

It really was the best way to spend New Year's Eve together as a family surrounded by such amazing sights.

Queenstown

Sadly the Waitomo caves were the last of our adventures on the north island.  Bright and early the next morning we flew off to the southern tip of the south island.  We really never got to see the middle of the country, just the north of the north island and the south of the south island.  Guess we'll have to go back someday ;)

I do need to record one small almost disaster that turned into a miracle.  In our first 4 hotels on the trip Taylor and I were split up in hotel rooms with the kids split between us but in each case our rooms were either right next door or just across the halls.  We got kind of used to letting them just come and go between us.  In Hamilton we ended up with adjoining rooms so we decided to have all the kids sleep in one room and just leave the adjoining room door cracked open.  We put Isla's crib in their bathroom so the boys had to come use our toilet at night.  Seemed perfect to us.  We stayed up late watching baby Ezi while the others finished up their glow worm tour and then we turned on our white noise machines like usual and crashed.  Around 3am I heard loud knocking on our door and opened it to find Mack and Miles.  Mack proceeded to explain that Miles had needed to go to the bathroom and he'd found him out in the hallway down the hall and around a corner, lying on the floor holding himself and sobbing that he needed "to go".  What???  So I let Miles in and we all went back to sleep.  And in the morning we got the full story.  Apparently Miles didn't realize that the cracked door was the one he needed to go through to find us and instead assumed it was like the previous nights when one of us was in a room across the hall.  We'd locked the door in his room but it was one of those where if you push down on the handle it unlocks for you.  So he'd needed to go in the middle of the night and just walked right out into the hall and then not been able to get back in.  And we hadn't heard him because of our white noise machines.  Luckily Sam, who is 6 months pregnant, and had been having a hard time with all the driving was having a hard time sleeping and was hungry and had sent Mack out to find a healthy snack- bananas and peanut butter- at 3am!  Lucky for us she did.  Miles had wandered the hall and wasn't anywhere near our rooms and had given up and laid down on the floor.  Thankfully Sam sent Mack out and he saved the day literally.  

After our flight to Queenstown  we settled into our amazing hotel on the water.  The kids wanted to explore so we headed out the back door.

And down to the little path behind the hotel.

Ducks are a universal source of entertainment.

Unfortunately we didn't have any bread so the kids ended up throwing rocks into the water.  The ducks thought it was bread so they kept circling around and eventually I had to put a stop to all the fun so the ducks wouldn't get hurt.

After a fun time outside we headed back in, got dinner, and then went to bed early.  All this fun and travel can be exhausting.