April 1st- April 3rd
April Fool’s day saw us back on another bus, this time an Atomic Shuttle, on our way to Queenstown for our tour of Milford Sound the following day. For the most part, the buses here are very obliging and will actually drop you off right at your destination, providing it’s not too far out of the way. This was no exception and we got almost curbside service right to our hotel on the edge of the city which saved us either a rather long walk or bus ride back from central Queenstown. The hotel was situated on the side of the hill and our room came complete with a beautiful view of the lake out the back door. Hopping on a city bus took us down into town so that we could explore the city a bit and peruse the Easter sales for a tramping pack that wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg and souvenirs for my parents to bring home. We weren’t very successful on either front, but we did find a delicious little soup place for dinner! Tomato basil...mmm J
The next morning we were picked up bright and early for our full day tour and cruise of Milford Sound. It’s actually quite a long ride from Queenstown, but we stopped in Te Anau along the way for one of New Zealand’s best venison pies (as good as promised) and were kept entertained by the driver’s very wide base of knowledge about the area and some gorgeous scenery, especially as we neared the Fjordlands proper. One of our stops was at Mirror Lake, only a few minutes’ walk off the Milford Highway. Nearly all of the lakes in New Zealand are beautiful and surrounded by incredible scenery, but this lake in particular is known for having incredibly still water which perfectly reflects the mountains in the backdrop, hence the name. Fitting with sly humour typical of this country, the DOC placed their sign upside down on the lake so that it would be read properly in the reflection on the water, instead of the actual sign. I’m going to miss all of the unexpected humour which you see around here on everything from government signs to the backs of buses to grocery store ads. The other main stop was at a location known as “The Chasm.” Aptly named, this was a river like nothing else I’ve ever seen. Over time, it had eroded its way through the rocky banks forming a series of tunnels and chasms through the rocks. It was an amazing demonstration of the power of time and persistence.
After driving through the apparently famous Homer Tunnel (I’m sure there’s something special about it, but by that time I was thinking more about finally getting off that bus), it was only a short way down some more windy mountain roads to the mouth of the Sound! We’d heard reports that the sun only shone on Milford around 10 days a year, and even on some of those days it still rains so we were prepared for the clouds which greeted us, even though it had been a beautiful sunny day when we’d left Queenstown earlier in the morning. Fortunately, it was not yet raining and we were hoping that it would hold off at least until after the cruise. Immediately upon embarking the little ship we were treated to a boxed lunch, coffee, and tea, which was very welcome after the long ride.
As we cruised out into the fjords, I was amazed by how huge the mountains actually looked from right down in the water. Pictures just can’t do a place like this justice; it’s impossible to get an accurate depiction of the grandeur of the fjords using only a camera, my poor little point-and-shoot couldn’t even capture the entire mountain from the base to the top as we were cruising by. One of the first big photo ops was a waterfall which they told us is 3x taller than Niagara falls but everything else was so much taller in comparison that the waterfall didn’t even appear that big! Soon after we’d passed the falls, still at the beginning of our journey, we heard a screech from the top deck and people began pointing over the side. DOLPHINS!! We soon spotted a whole pod of bottlenose dolphins, jumping and swimming past our boat in the opposite direction. My mom promptly started screaming and jumping around (I swear people probably thought someone fell off the boat...love you mummy dearest J )and we were both too busy pointing and flapping about to get any pictures of the actual animals. We did, however, manage to capture quite a few dolphin-y splashes J
Continuing on our way, I tried to stay out on the front deck to appreciate the full magnificence (and take pictures) but it was so windy that I felt like I was literally getting beaten back and eventually retreated back into the boat for some hot tea and a respite from the cold. We reached the end of the Sound, which opened up into the Tasman Sea, only a couple thousand kilometres from the east coast of Australia! On our way back we travelled down the opposite side to get a closer look at some of the waterfalls. Closer, to the captain, apparently meant really close, as he decided that his boat needed a washing and steered it very carefully right up to the side of the mountain to dip the hull in the rushing water and sending all of us brave (or unaware of how close we would actually be) souls hurrying back under the shelter of the awnings as the waterfall rained down on us from above. It was actually pretty cool (literally); it’s not every day that you get to shower in a waterfall!
The last bit of excitement for the trip was as we were once again nearing port and the end of our cruise. Pulling up to one of the huge rocks along the side a pair of seals obliged us with a little show! The first was calmly minding his own business, lying on top of the rock. This was not meant to be, however, as another promptly scooted its way up out of the water below and began to flop up to the top to challenge his mate for the position of “King of the Rock.” A minor seal fight ensued, with some howling, menacing opening and shutting of the mouths, and flipper slapping. The original guy didn’t appear to be in much of a mood for fighting, though, and quickly gave up his reign. Either that or his mother had instilled the “sharing is caring” principle much better than had the mother of his competitor. The bus ride back to Queenstown was a much quieter one, as most people (myself included) were either napping or looking out over the scenery and mulling over the sights of our long, full day in the fjordlands.
In our time before our bus the next morning, we headed back into central Queenstown for breakfast at Patagonia, aka the best chocolate cafe you will ever encounter. They have everything chocolate, from croissants to gelato to fudge to their specialty lavender hot chocolate. My parents ordered a plate of croissants to share and a flat white coffee for my mom, which came out with a little heart design on the top, how cute! The croissants came with 4 different topping choices: chocolate caramel (of course), delicious berries (the unanimous favourite), cream cheese, and butter. If you’re ever in Queenstown, I’d highly recommend it. Some more wandering around and a picture with the statue of a man and his sheep, which stood by the water, and it was time for us to end our stay in the adrenaline capital of the world, with lots of sights behind us and still more to come in the last days of their visit! Stay tuned...p.s. If you’ll notice, I’ve begun using the New Zealand version of English (inserting “u”s and abandoning the “z” in favour of the “s”). This is because a couple of my friends and I discovered the hard way that you lose points for having incorrect grammar and spelling when you hand in papers and lab reports using American English, which was incredibly frustrating. Microsoft Word’s default language has now been set to “English (New Zealand)” to avoid any such future loss of (an unnecessarily large amount, in my opinion) points.
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