After breakfast, we headed out towards the Tasman Sea to the mouth of the sound. The captain thought the sea looked pretty calm, so he proceeded further out into it. It didn't feel like such a good plan when the ship started noticeably pitching and I was reminded of why I am not keen on blue water sailing. We headed back into the sound and the dock, passing the large waterfall that created the mist that I had been unable to capture last night.
We docked around 9 am and got back on the bus for our return through the tunnel and back to Te Anau for a lunch stop. As we drove past Monkey Creek again, the Kea was entertaining more tourists. We knew that dinner would be provided tonight, so we had planned ahead to have snacks so that we could spend our time checking out the shops instead of eating. I found a few things and looked for a Maori style jade pendant, but nothing intrigued me.
We also spent some time at a bird sanctuary where there big draw is the takahe, which was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1948. It is a large flightless hen with small wings. Restoration efforts around the country have resulted in just over 400 birds today. There were several other birds here too, but their cages were fully enclosed and darker, and I had no success at taking a worthwhile photo of any of them. I enjoyed walking around for a while and found a pretty pair of geese in the wild instead.
The rest of the trip was through a lot of farm land and we saw lots of sheep and lambs and the occasional farmed deer and cow herds.
We arrived in Queenstown in time to get our luggage, start to unpack, go to dinner and prep for tomorrow.
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