Milford Sound Fur Seals
We decided to take a boat trip around the Sound which is not really a sound but a fiord formed by glaciers. I am informed that the difference is that a sound has a more flat bottom whilst a fiord has a V-shaped one. That said the walls of the sound were steep and there were many waterfalls. For me it was a relaxing time from driving whilst John was up on Deck with the videocamera. The Captain took the ship very near to the seals and the macro setting on the camera resulted in the attached picture. The trip took in the outer margins of the sound where the sea became very rough. We had decided to take the side trip to a marine laboratory based in the sound and constructed from many floating pontoons. The lab had a circular 64 step staircase going down to a circular observation area with viewing windows made of about 10 inch thick specially made glass. I believe the guide said that each window,( and there were about 10 in all) cost £10,000. Every so often, divers went down to clean the windows of algae. Outside the windows on a continuous circular platform were representative plants and animals of the region. The platform could be raised or lowered to take account of the amount of freshwater flowing into the sound so that the flora and fauna remained healthy. The tube worm photo which follows was taken through one of these windows.
