canadian_turtle

Mood:

|| Stressed
Tune : Watching Masterchef Australia

July 12: Today I had a day trip to Milford Sound, which I had booked spontaneously the day before. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful trips in New Zealand and every other traveler I spoke to had been there or was planning to go there so it sounded like something I really couldn't miss.

The trip started out a bit disappointing... As there were only 7 people for the trip today we got picked up (and would stay for the entire duration of the trip) in something that resembled a small shuttle bus instead of the luxury coach with cinema option advertised... And our bus driver wasn't a very knowledgeable tour guide either answering most of our questions with "I don't know", hell he didn't even know that the Rocky Mountains are located in the US and Canada, wtf? He also didn't know how the sound system worked so kept it on the entire trip. This wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact he is a chain smoker and the sound that could be heard for our 10 hours or so in the bus resembled that of Darth Vader breathing heavily into the mic. /rant

Anyway, we left fairly early in the morning as it's a long trip to Milford Sound; in one go I guess 4 hours or so, but luckily we had some stops on our way. The first stop was at a small bird park in Te Anau, which was alright I suppose. They didn't have kiwis though, which made me sad :( (I ended up not seeing any whilst in New Zealand). Our second stop was at Eglinton Valley which made me think of Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings so much! I could practically see the troops gather around me, getting ready for the big battle. So awesome! Next up was Mirror Lakes, which really does its name justice. Unfortunately for us there was a ripple in the water when we got there but even so we could still see the amazing reflection of the opposite mountain range. We also had a completely random stop somewhere with a pretty waterfall and it was really odd but it was one of two places where there was a heap of snow (and a lot of icicles hanging from the mountains, pretty!). Our last stop was at a place known for its "chasm" (naturally formed holes etc in the rocks there), but the main attraction was for sure the wild Kea (mountain parrot). Our bus driver had a biscuit on him and it was fun watching the bird while it was trying to devour the entire biscuit with its awkward shaped beak.

At last we made it to Milford Sound! We had a two hour cruise there which was really quite nice but not as spectacular as I had expected it to be beforehand (maybe I've just had enough trips/cruises in the past few months? idk). There were some awesome waterfalls we got to see though (very up close, so close we got wet from them!) and wild fur seals!! The latter was definitely the highlight to me, omg they looked so fluffy and petable (though I am sure they're not :P). Other than that I spent most of my time chatting with Emma, a girl from the UK that was on my tour as well.

On our way back to Queenstown we had a brief stop at a place where a huge tree avalanche had been quite a few years ago -- but its devastating result was still very visible. That was the last bit of daylight we had though so I spent the rest of the trip sleeping in the bus ;P