Things never seem to go as smoothly as they should for Chaggie sometimes though (as you all know), this morning was another classic example. After booking our trip at a discounted offer off 'bookme.co.nz', we received an email saying we had to be outside 'The Station' building in the centre of Queenstown for just after 08.00. We ended up standing there for half an hour, seeing our tour bus drive past twice, the second time it passed we knew something was wrong. We ran back to Base to check the email again and it definately said meet at The Station building. However, Chino rang up the company and they said they had been waiting outside our backpackers for us! What we were not aware of was that, after putting our address in when booking the trip, the company would pick you up from there but nothing was written on the email or anything about that! However, a car was sent out to us and we were taken to where the bus had just picked someone up and we were able to hop on before it set off to the Milford Sound! Phew!
It was quite a treck to Milford Sound which is over 120km away from Queenstown. We stopped off in various places to take photos and to have a tea/coffee stop, as well as catching up on some sleep throughout the journey.
We eventually got to the cruise port just before 15:00.. that shows how long the journey was! Staggie immediately recognised the port as he also came here a decade ago with his family! The cruise took about 1hr 45mins and our tour company also provided us with lunch! Lovely jubbly! The Milford Sound really is a special place, with mountains dominating everything around you as you cruise along, the odd waterfall casually falling into the lake/sea. The mountains were formed by a glacier over 1500 years ago I seem to remember being told, so again, we can educate you! It really is quite a sight, not only do we enjoy it but the seals and dolphins too. Sadly we didn't have the nicest of days for it weather wise but it doesn't affect the views too much.
We headed back towards Queenstown at around 17.00 and stopped off in a place called 'Mossburn' to have fish and chips, again provided by the tour company. This was turning out to be an absolute bargain for $79 (40 quid)!! We eventually got back to Base at 21.00 so it has been a long day for Chaggie. We probably won't hit the town tonight, and save ourselves for Friday, Saturday and I'm sure we can squeeze in Sunday too!
Chaggie x
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