Debs worked very hard to prepare an extremely special series of surprises for me, including decorating the Spaceship, and commissioning the owner of Gunn's Holiday Camp to make a cake for me.
She even whipped out 3 birthday badges that she'd made in Wanaka last week, all sneaky like:
We've had a wonderful day together: we drove through to Milford Sound, then treated ourselves to poached eggs on toast and a flat white (really good coffee, NZ style) each for breakfast, then we hopped on a cruise boat for 2 hours of nature encounter fun around the fjord.The boat's captain was called Fjord, curiously enough. Even curiouser - he's the son of the people who run Gunn's Camp, where we stayed last night. Lovely place, shame about the sandflies :-( More on NZ's best-kept secret later from Debs.
Prompted by a mischievous nudge from cheeky Debs, Fjord and the crew arranged all sorts of birthday fun for me, including a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday from all the passengers, swiftly followed by a soaking under Fairy Falls. Then we rode upfront on the bridge, drinking tea and trying to spot penguins... there was one! Cooler was the seal we saw earlier totally savaging an octopus. We tried to get a picture, but he was pretty hard to capture.
Now we're back in Te Anau, and tonight we get pizza for supper. Wahoo!
I couldn't be happier!
Ben
P.S. Thanks Debs, I love you!
