this is the little boat we rode on our tour of milford sound. we purchased our tour through our b&b owner, as one whole package,a nd didn't have an option of picking a specific size boat for the tour. theoretically, the small one was much better than taking the larger ships with the full bars & snack shops, because it was easier to get closer to wildlife. in reality, i (and my stomach) would've much preferred the larger, impersonal boats, because they didn't rock as much. although it was freezing, i had to spend the whole trip on the top outside deck because the motion was too much inside, down below. and the crew wasn't sympathetic to those with bad stomachs. they seemed to find it amusing that people got seasick. hmmph!
when we signed up for the tour, we didn't know that a 2 hour hike was part of it, so we didn't have our hiking boots or enough water. our guide pretty much forced us to do it anyway, because it was such a spectacularly clear & sunny day - unusual for the area. we filled up our empty water bottles with water from a spigot that had a warning sign telling us to boil or purify it first (which we didn't). our guide claimed it was disease free (and so far, we're giardia free). the hike was the other end of the routeburn trail, so now we've done both ends. here are pictures of mt. christina, lake marian, and a kea that we met in the parking lot. keas are really really smart mountain parrots, and they love to chew up backpacks looking for food. 
