Milford Sound
Trip Start
Mar 20, 2007
1
6
15
Trip End
Apr 27, 2007
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Woke up early to prepare for my one big excursion of this trip: A day-trip to New Zealand's most popular tourist attraction - Milford Sound. The tour I booked would have charged 18 dollars for a packed lunch of sandwiches and an apple, so of course I made my own. Actually I should have made sandwiches for the other people as well and sold them for ten dollars a piece.
I was picked up at the hostel by the tour bus at 9:45, about 15 minutes behind schedule. The delay was not surprising to me as I knew the bus was coming from Queenstown - a couple hour's drive away. The trip started off a big foggy (resulting in some pretty spectacular pictures, some of which are attached), and along the way we stopped several times to take pictures at some of the famous locations along the way, such as the "Mirror Lakes", where the water is so clear and still that it reflects the surrounding scenery
01-Scenes on the way to Milford Sound
. We also had a couple of perfectly timed toilet stops. Once we got to Milford Sound, it started raining. We boarded a boat for a cruise of the sound (actually it's a fiord), and the weather just got worse. This has been the only rain that I encountered on the entire trip to date (for which I am grateful), but the fact is that the rain pretty much obscured the view and made for a disappointing boat trip. So I would have to conclude that for me Milford Sound was not worth visiting. Still, it is one of those places that I had to visit to know that it wasn't worth visiting. You can be sure, though, that in my next life I WON'T be going there.On the bus ride back home in the evening I tried to get a little shut-eye (not having had a single good night's sleep on this trip so far), and again I didn't manage to sleep. That might not be too bad because the scenery was still pretty spectacular and I really shouldn't have even been trying to sleep. Eventually I gave up trying and ended up taking a few more pictures.
My conclusions about the Milford Sound excursion: Technically the trip was perfectly executed. Everything was done well and on time; there were stops in all the right places for taking pictures and using the toilets. But the Milford Sound itself was really nothing spectacular
02-Another view on the way to Milford
. The rides there and back, however, were worthwhile.The night before, I had agreed with my Belgian roommates that we would cook dinner together tonight. So as soon as we got back to town from the tour of Milford Sound, I stopped at the supermarket and picked up some chicken to cook. I prepared some of my delicious Louisiana-style smothered chicken and the Belgians provided the accompanying vegetables (a potato and broccoli casserole) and a bottle of New Zealand red wine. While in the kitchen cooking, I met lots of nice people, including a lone Swedish girl; three girls from Berlin; and a very gregarious young Israeli guy who was also cooking chicken but didn't know how to give it the Louisiana taste. So I taught him my cooking secrets and he said that never had his chicken tasted so good.
The Swedish girl had finished eating and was writing in her diary (in Swedish) at the dinner table. I told her I could read Swedish (I can't), and I told her that I could translate what she had written. So I took her diary into my hands and started with ". . . and today I met a very handsome American guy who cooked some delicious chicken . . " (It seemed like such an obvious thing for a charming guy like myself to say, but she found it so hilarious that she couldn't stop laughing.)
After dinner I had a several-hour chat with three Berlinerinnen (the German word for multiple females from Berlin. Thankfully the German language still allows for the identification of the gender of people without them taking offense.) It turns out they were not even guests of the hostel but were sleeping in their car in the parking lot of the hostel and just using the hostel's kitchen and bathroom facilities - for free, I might add! My kind of gals! They even out-cheapskated me. They are real survivors - and I admire that.
Comments
Hansum Man
Swedish girl not know you sexy man in Thailand.