Milford and Kamuda!

So these two weekends saw the bolstering of our ranks by the noble Jeff Kamuda. It was so nice to finally see another face from back in the States and catch up with him. Good times.
Secondly, the weekend brought on the much anticipated Milford Trek trip, involving myself, Spencer, and Marissa. This was doomed from the start. With it being late in the season, snow fall and poor conditions were a realistic possibility. So as the date got closer and conversations between the DOC (Department of Conservation) took place, we found out that there was snow and avalanche warnings. We decided that since none of us had Alpine training, that it’d be better to err on the side of caution. Instead we planned on doing a kayaking trip through the sound.
We left pretty late for Te Anau hoping to get there around 11-12, but fate had another plan. With Marissa sound asleep in the back of the car, Spencer and I were chatting away about anything and everything. In fact, so deep in conversation that we missed our turn to Te Anau and ended up in Queenstown, about 1.5 hours still out of our destination and growing later. After laughing and cursing, we hit the road again, finally arriving in the ever elusive Te Anau. Apparently it is possible to get lost in NZ.
The next day we hopped in the car and headed into the Sound, about a 2 hour drive from the town. We stopped a few times to check out some trails and such. Mirror Lakes was a neat little spot where the still lake reflects the majestic mountains in the background. We also did a short few hour hike into a pretty alpine lake. On the hike in we heard 2-3 avalanches in the surrounding mountains, confirming our fears for the Milford trek itself. After spending some time around the lake, the hour was growing later, so we decided to head back, but again got caught up in conversation and Spencer led us astray. Fortunately, my superb tracking skills found our trail again and brought us safely to the car.
The rest of the drive was scenic, highlighted by the sweet tunnel that leads into the valley where Milford Sound lays. It was a weird tunnel because it wasn’t paved over with concrete on the inside, making it look half finished. The best part was the end where we emerge high up in the valley, looking down at a gorgeous view during sunset. So sweet. Our hostel was right smack dab in the middle of the mountains, which was awesome. We dropped our bags, made dinner, and played a game of scrabble (which I of course won). Marissa cheated, telling us that “quo” was a word while Spencer dazzled us with his vocabulary word, veld.
The next morning we got up early, had breakfast, and waited for the kayaking people. When they arrived they said that it was pretty windy out, thus might be too dangerous to go out on the Sound. And of course, it was. We got our money back, so instead booked a 2 hour cruise through the sound. It was a gorgeous and fun boat ride through Milford Sound which apparently is in the running for one of the new natural wonders of the world, so needlessly to say, its awesome. Despite some hiccups in the trip plans and executions, it was still a fantastic weekend.