My one minute moment of fame

Bad hair day, day 1

I couldn't wait to hit the ski slopes, but yesterday's jet lag was still there inside my body and I realise that if I go skiing today, I'll screw the whole experience. So I booked a relaxing scenery tour to Milford Sound. In Perth, I've done my homework so I know Milford Sound is a must visited place and it's not dissapointing. Several people from the hotel were going to Milford Sound too and we had to be ready at 6.15 am. It's no holiday people...it's a travelling experience to see the world (what kind of holiday require you to wake up at 5 am?). Beside I still have to get used to the idea that I wasn't able to dry my hair this morning, so it's gonna be a bad hair day moments, until I have the time to do some shopping.

The bus was five minute late and after that we still have to pick up some people from other hotel. We suppose to get a couple from a certain hotel but when we get there, they were not on the pick up spot! The bus driver had to stepped down from the bus, went to the reception and even knocking on their bedroom door (what the...?). The driver forgot to close the door when he went inside the hotel, so we all sat on the bus freezing. When this people finally board the bus, the whole bus were staring angrily at them (they made us waited for 15 minutes). The girl enter the bus looked down embarassingly but the guy waved at us cheerily and said, "Sorry about that, everybody!" Sorry...my bum!

Anyway, we continue the journey while listening to a very talkative driver telling us story about the legend of lake Wakatipu and other facts about New Zealand. New Zealander is very protective about their country's cleanliness. The driver said, you can do anything in New Zealand but trash the country.

Along the journey, I saw patches of snow on the side of the road and I got excited. First time I see the snow! Can't wait to touch it! We experienced a typical New Zealand traffic too. A bunch of cow were crossing the street and everyone on the bus were busy taking their picture, including me.

Along the way, we stopped several times to appreciate the beauty of nature. We stopped to see this snow covered mountains (forgot the names), to walk inside a forest and to see this very clear lake...so clear it reflects the scenery of its whole surrounding. No wonder it's called Mirror Lake. We are so spoiled with beautiful view, even from my seat on the bus I can see through the bus's glass roof and watch the mountains all the time.

On one occassion, we saw a Kea (a bird about the same size as cockatoo) walking on the side of our bus. This Kea is the most hated bird in New Zealand because of its obsession to tyres. Most people wouldn't dream of leaving their car if they know the place is inhabited by Kea. This bird shreds tyre to pieces, leaving you stranded because of your broken tyre will prevent you to continue your journey. Of course, this bird is equipped with a very strong beak. This is the picture of a supposedly green Kea, but this one is covered with mud so it's a bit brown.

Then we reached Milford Sound. Basically Milford Sound is a collection of mountains with water falls. These mountains are made of solid granite, no trace of soil can be found on them. Best part is they all sport one or two water falls that comes from the peak, down to the sea below. Some mountain has permanent water fall but some only have them when the frequency of rain is high. Some of the mountains has names, one of them is Mitre Peak. Don't ask me about the other's names, I totally forgot. But we haven't got to the best of the best part yet. We boarded the boat and the journey began.

I sat at the back of the boat at the beginning of the trip, eating my $ 2 lunch sandwich and watching this million dollar view. Then I got bored and start to explore the boat. The boat consists of two compartments, two storey boat. First I went inside to where the comfortable seats are, then went out and went to the bottom part and finally settle down at the head of the boat watching it slicing the water. No one's around, they are all inside try to get themselves warm. Then suddenly the driver announced from the speaker that he spotted a school of bottlenose dolphin ahead. Everyone rushed out and try to position themselves to get the best view. But I already occupied the best spot. When the boat got closer to the dolphins, the dolphins spotted us and swam closer toward the boat.

Talking about intelligent animal...three dolphins swam in front of the boat and they adjust their swimming speed with the boat speed. When the boat started to speed up, they increase their speed too, swimming faster. It was a real joy watching these creatures. I've never seen something so incredible like this, and they are wild dolphin too, not some well trained dolphin in Underwater World. I was able to capture this moment with my video camera, then some people saw a pair of mother and child seals. Unlike the dolphins, they didn't approach us and swam further away from the boat. After the boat crew explained to us that the chance to see all those animals were actually very slim in this cruise (only happened to 20% of the trip), we felt so lucky. There's another cruise to Doubtful Sound, where the chance to see the animals are higher than the cruise to Milford Sound, because that cruise is specifically design to spot them. But we get to see both, the mountains and the animals, good, eh?

We spotted another animal, yellow-eyed penguin on the land. The boat tried to get as close to the penguin as possible, but my camera still wasn't able to capture this animal's picture. But we had enough fun anyway. So we continue to enjoy the mountains. One of the cruise company crew were capturing all the sceneries with his video camera and when he saw me and my sister he started to talk to us. Cliche questions like, "Do you enjoy the trip?" and "The dolphin was quite a surprise, was it?" blah...blah...blah...He saw us taking each other's pictures and offered to take picture of both of us (using my camera, of course). After a while, he hesitantly asked us if we can perform some act for him because apparently his job is to make an advertising video for the company. So we did this silly act for him, he asked us to point toward the mountains and show anticipating and exciting faces. It feels awkward at first but then we start to get into action and give him this oscar worthy performance (yeah right!).

Here I am, in one of my bad hair day moment and was asked to be in promotional video. I think I will stop brushing my hair one day and someone will sign me up to do a movie right away, how's that....Worth to try, eh?