Day 21

Very special day today.  We did an overnight boat cruise into Doubtful Sound.  You drive for 20 minutes, catch a boat to ferry you across a lake (50 minutes), then take a shuttle bus for another 55 minutes to get you to the boat that you will spend the night on.

This was likely the best day so far.  The boat takes you up and back through several fiord arms of Doubtful Sound and reaches the Tasman Sea before returning.  The scenery is spectacular and the water was like glass.

Along the way we:

• Saw a couple of fur seal colonies.
• Saw a crested penguin.
• Went kayaking for about 30-40 minutes in the fiord.
• Fished (for our own dinner) a couple of times.
• Pulled up lobster traps and reset them (the crew, not us).
• Caught the following fish and/or birds:
• Scarlet wrasse
• Blue cod
• Tarakihi
• Barracuda
• School shark
• Albatross
• Watched the ship's captain have to dive and cut loose the lobster trap rope that had fouled the propeller.  

Michele caught (and lost) the shark.  Actually, she caught a wrasse and the shark swallowed it while she was reeling it in.  Same story with the albatross.  He was unhurt, as was the shark.  This brings her lifetime total to three of things she almost caught while catching something else.  In Brazil she caught a piranha that was then stolen by a hawk.

Lunch was a type of rock lobster caught in the sound.  The captain (who is also a lobster fisherman) says he gets 109 NZD a kilo. for it.  No idea what the retail price is, but geez....  Dinner was whatever we caught that day.  I'm not a fish guy, but the blue cod is very nice.

We slept in a bunk that was almost big enough for 1 person.  Cozy.

Anyway, we were gone for more than 24 hours in total and it was excellent.