Doubtful Sound part 2

May 1

After kayaking, I changed into some dry clothes and the staff served us soup to warm us up.  We all gathered in the dining room.  I sat with a couple from Dunedin, New Zealand, and a couple from Australia.  Well the wife was Swedish and the husband Irish.  We had a lovely leek, potato, and mushroom soup.  

After soup we had a couple more hours until the main dinner was to be served.  We sailed out to the mouth of Doubtful Sound.  There are some rocks out there where baby seals played in the shallow waters while their parents lazed about on the rocks.  When we reached the mouth of the fiord the sun was lowering in the sky.  It was a beautiful sight to see the sun dip into the sea and set.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a sunset quite like it before and the crew claimed it was the best sunset they had seen all season.  

Soon it was dinner time, and what a dinner!  I sat with the family I was sharing the quad share room with.  They were from Wellington, New Zealand.  But the daughter who was about my age had just returned from living in Vancouver, BC.  We had a lot to talk about.  As far as New Zealanders went, I think they had traveled more in the US than any other New Zealander I had met so far.  They had been to places I haven’t had the chance to go to yet!

For dinner we had a lovely buffet with salads, roasted vegetables, sauces, carvery meats, vegetable options, and smoked salmon.  And so many more things that I can’t remember all of them!  I went back for seconds.  Dessert was also really nice.  I was so full by that time that I didn’t try everything.  I just had a slice of cheesecake and a fruit crumble.  But they also had chocolate cake, pavlova, and fruit salad on offer.

After the dinner we were invited to a nature presentation slideshow. I wasn’t expecting much -- I thought it might be like the slideshows the rangers used to put on at Lake Chelan.  But in fact it was much better and way more informative.  I’ve heard a lot of information and facts about New Zealand’s native flora and fauna, but never so in depth and interesting as this presentation.  I could tell that the presenter really cared about New Zealand’s wildlife and the things that are deteriorating it.

After the presentation I could barely keep my eyes open.  But since we were in the middle of nowhere I decided to go out on the deck and check out the stars.  They were beautiful, but I didn’t think they were any more stunning than they are in Te Anau.  I did see one shooting star though.  Before I knew it I was cuddled up in bed asleep.