Fee-ORD. K-eye-AKK.

On the other end of some major time spent bus-bound on the West Coast, I finally found myself at my southernmost destination: Milford Sound.

Milford Sound is not a sound. It is a fiord. This was a point made to me many times, followed by a desciption of glacial carving, etc..... I just wanted to see the big funky mountain-ocean thing.

And there she was: all snow capped peaks, sheer sides and shimmering waters. And in an uncanny stroke of odds-beating luck, I got to see it on a sunny day. Milford is one of the wettest places on the planet -- averaging around 23 or so feet of rain a year, spread over 300 days. I got to see 2 of their scant 65 days of sun.

So, I took to a kayak. Kay-ak. (Between those two words, kayak and fiord, I had more fun saying them to myself in my head than I do with most other pursuits. With the former I was partial to a German-tinged "KAYAK", spoken like a trooper saying "Achtung!", and for fiord I opted for the more logical Swedish Chef rendition: "Eeee - fiord! fiord! fiord!")

Anyway, I went out on a sea kayak into the sound. There were about 15 of us in the group, led by our guides.... and it was stunning. The scenery alone would've been enough, but we had company. First, the fur seals played together right aound us, alternatively rolling over in the water and lounging, looking up to the sky and wiping their faces with their flippers. At one point, we were within about 7 feet of them, and they didn't seem to mind. But the highlight was the bottlenose dolphins -- a small pod swam near us, slowly moving among the kayaks, curious. They would swim from one area of the sound to another, popping up to let some air out, always close enough to be seen by us and sometimes within 15 feet.

And then they were gone. Until -- at the end of the trip, as we were heading in, I heard a big splash. I looked toward the splash and out of the water, in arched grace, were three dolphins, jumping in the sun. They were sychronized too; like a rogue Sea World splinter group, auditioning for a southern audience. The guide said he had only seen something like that one other time in all of the times he'd been out. It's definitely not like anything I've seen, and it will stay with me for a long time.