Queenstown

March 11, 2019

Just a short message from myself to start with today to be of relief to you- I am not affected by the Christchurch incident on March 15. I’m good and alive.

But know to continue:

In Queenstown I started with strolling along the city and the lake with two other (German) ladies. The lake in Queenstown is quite huge yet beautiful. At first we didn’t came far because the footpath ended despite the bus driver’s note you could walk miles in both directions. No matters, we walked in the opposite direction along the lake then. That was so nice!

I booked my further travels with Kiwi Experience in the evening aswell as the boot tour in Milford Sound which was fully booked for the next 5 days in a row but I only had two available, so my only possibilty was the waitlist once again.

In the morning I showed up for the bus at 6:30am (zzZ) and at first the driver left me waiting outside, but in the end he had a seat for me on the bus, just not for the other guy hoping for a seat like me. The drier was Ben, and he had a very special personality. He’s only driving the Milford Sound tour, but everyday. And from what I’ve heard from others, everyday’s the same for him, he’s always doing the same stops and jokes and everything. There was one tunnel and even though it’s not one way only, only vehicles from one side are allowed to pass at a time. To the fitting movie soundtrack he made a roller-coaster out of the tunnel, flickering bus lights, phenomenal speed and dangling wheels.

I have to admit, I personally didn’t really like him as a person. His bus driver skills are outstanding, but there was something weird about him himself.

At arrival time I was in such a rush to repack my stuff that I just followed all the people ‘:D Zen navigation at ist best. And I didn’t came to the ferry terminal, but the carpark instead. A 10min walk each way, and I only had 15min… As you might already guess at this stage, very short on time. The ferry left without me, but the friendly staff directed me to the office where they booked me on a later ferry and the bus back to Queenstown by the same company. I was alone for the time on the ferry, but at least I was on it! The cruise itself turned out to be a little boring, better than what friends told me but it was still just the boat trip through the Milford Sound mountains, turning around and seeing the same mountains again.

On our way back to Queenstown the road we took in the morning was closed due to an accident, and the alternative one happened to be a gravel road. Has been a while since I’ve been so motion sick the last time, and I’ve been very sensitive lately. Uhhg. At least it was a very scenic drive, thats what I love so much about New Zealand!

On Monday I started the day with looking for my lost key card, and I still can’t remember when or how I’ve lost it xD The staff at the reception gave me another one for free, lucky me! This gave me a late start in the day, but at breakfast I met some friends from the bus again and as this was the last time we were together, we decided to walk up Queenstown Hill. Geez, what a steedy hill!! We had so many breaks that it took us 6 hours in total instead of about 2 xD but we had looads of fun again.