7.30am bus
out of Invercargill, last night was probably one of the best nights sleep I’ve
ever had so I did not want to get up this morning. Our driver took us to Five
Rivers where we met the daily kiwi Milford Sound bus, so we all moved from our
bus to theirs and as I got on there were people at the back shouting my name,
which is always the best feeling when you’re getting on a bus expecting not to
know anyone. Rach, Charli and Laura had a spare seat as if they knew I was
coming. Our first stop was in Te Amau at a small café, which is the half waypoint
to Milford.
We next
stopped at the Mirror Lakes. From here we weren’t far from the tunnel where we
had to wait 5 minutes until we were allowed through which gave us plenty of
time to run out to take photos and lucky for us it was snowing! Not a lot but
it was in the air, which made the whole experience even more exciting.
The whole
area is called the Fiordland National Park and it really was beautiful, the
best thing I saw all day or even few days. New Zealand is all about the scenery
and sometimes I get to the point where it all just looks the same and it’s
always around, so you feel less impressed but I do love at least once a day you
have that WOW moment.
We had one
more stop before arriving in Milford and this was the The Chasm. It was a
lovely little walk and there are waterfalls, lakes, rivers and just water in
general everywhere here.
Our boat
ride through the Milford Sound started at 1.30 and lasted just under 2 hours.
It wasn’t as spectacular as they big it up to be, we did get to see some pretty
amazing waterfalls and seals but the journey to the boat I enjoyed more than
the boat itself. Lunch and refreshments were included in our trip but there
wasn’t really enough room for everyone to sit down so it was quite an
interesting experience.
There is
only one road from Milford Sound to Te Amau so we got to see all the beautiful
scenery on the way back too, which was a good thing as the weather was sunny on
the way back so the views looked even more amazing than they did before. Four
seasons in one day! Just outside Te Amau we witnessed a pretty horrific car
crash, which delayed us by about an hour, it was so bad the fire-fighters had
to cut the top of the car off and a helicopter came to lift the woman to
hospital, not nice!
Eventually
arriving back in Queenstown we dropped most of the bus off at Nomads and then
we got dropped off around the corner at Base as there was no room to stay in
Nomads. I opened the bottom of the bus to find only one piece of luggage
left…obviously it wasn’t mine, the bus driver seemed a little confused and said
my bag must be outside Nomads and someone took it off by accident. He didn’t
really care and just wanted to be on his way so I just quickly dumped my small
bag and food bag in base reception and ran over to Nomads. I probably got there
a good 15minutes since the bus left and there was my bag in the middle of the
pavement… obviously I was pleased it was still there but it was a bit
ridiculous that I had to run to pick it up and then walk back to my hostel when
it should never have left the bus in the first place. I hope this isn’t the
restart of my terrible luck so far this trip!
I was
hungry but not that hungry and as we had missed the free dinner at Nomads we
decided on the bus to all meet up and go to Fergburger as a few of the girls
hadn’t yet had one. Obviously I had to join them but don’t worry, I only had a
small kids burger which was just as good, you can’t go to Ferg and not get one,
that would be a crime! After dinner we went for a walk around the lake and
bought some cheap cookies from a shop that was just about to close. Perfect
timing if you ask me.
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