Face to face with calm turtles, gentle rays and curious sharks, the surface sending shimmering rays of vibrant sunlight through the water, casting a magical glow over you. A turtle sees you and soars closer, curious about the strange creature in their home. Dazzling colours and glorious, rippling surface patterns scatter, reflecting off the bottom of the shallows. It's breathtaking, and yet you've never been able to breathe easier.
The climbing vines clinging to the trees, the countless waterfalls among the trees, the barrelling glacier-fed rapids that lined the road in sections. It was all so mesmerising. It is no wonder why the Maori people hold Milford Sound so close to their hearts and their culture.
And that was truly just the start...the colours just exploded around us...colourful fish surrounded us as we swam further into this underwater oasis, magic sparkling around us as the sunlight shimmered down from the water's surface. And I had no idea that being here with our friends could possibly get any better.
We did not know what this year would hold for us. As of this very moment, I am sitting in my office looking out at a perfect view of the sunlight filtering down through the green leaves of the trees, a perfect blue sky, and bird song fills the air. And to top it all off, the butterfly migration is in full swing. There are butterflies gracefully arcing through the wind every which way. This is paradise, surely?
And then, imagine this...millions of years after your entire species is long gone, an individual of a species you will never see for yourself happens upon your footprints; immortalised remnants of your life, of your very existence. Pure happenstance and suddenly two species, millions of years apart, are connected.
We decided to travel through our home state...Just in this one road trip, we had been to the red outback centre of the state to the crystal clear oceans that frame its edges.
It passed us and suddenly we were alone again, just the two of us in this incredible crisp white paradise with snow softly falling from the sky all around us, sparkling as it drifted to the ground and on top of our car...winding our way around the highest of roads amid the rocky mountains, ice ribbons lacing their way around the snow-covered road and the perfect light grey clouds that layered around us.
It was so much fun shredding around every emerging corner and shift in the fluffy snow. The higher we got up the mountain, the more the few clouds around us dissipated and suddenly there we were, snow mobiling through fresh white powder with deep emerald pine trees and a beautiful blue sky all around us.
By the time we edged out of the pine trees on the other side of the path, the Fairmont lay to one side and the first glimpses of Lake Louise lay to the other side. And in between, a little wooden cabin, straight out of a winter movie.
It was later in the afternoon and a few clouds were drifting in the afternoon sky, the right side of said clouds lined with a soft yellow, a reflection of the dipping sun. The snow was such a pure white that it was tinged with the palest of icy blue tones.
It took a few seconds before I realised what we were barrelling towards. We stopped halfway across the frozen lake and got out to spend some time bonding with our sled teams while they rolled around in the fluffy snow.
