We awoke the next morning early, our bus would be arriving soon to take us out to Milford Sound, and then we would be boarding a boat to see the many fjords and waterways. At least… that’s what we thought would happen. I’ve talked quite a bit this trip about having expectations that don’t quite match the outcomes in this trip, and again I feel like I should have payed more attention to the itinerary and perhaps have done a little research on my own regarding our tours. Once on the bus, with probably sixty other people, we were informed that the trip to Milford Sound would take about three hours, the boat ride was only about 90 minutes, and we’d be stopping here and there along the way.
Don’t get me wrong, the pictures are stunning and the landscape is awe-inspiring, the bus ride… however… was not.
Windy roads took us through the first hour and a half of travel, weaving back and forth enough to make me wish I had motion-sickness pills with me. Combine that with the many people around us who were coughing and sneezing so much you’d think we were in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, and by the time we were at the “first stop” along our tour I was wishing we’d taken another route. The first stop wasn’t even a sight-seeing stop, but a tourist trap. The bus parked with six others outside a cafe with an attached gift shop (read: a gift shop that sells coffee) where tourists could buy all sorts of wool scarves, hats, and trinkets from the region. This was one of our longer shops, and rather than play along I toured the outside of the building some, looked at the town, and only briefly wandered inside to find Jon ordering coffee and that Jen never even got off the bus.
Another thirty minutes down the road… we stopped again for a few mountain shots. This was to my liking, with far-flung pictures of mountain ranges as far as the eye could see. I grabbed some good shots that will make computer background images for years to come… and then back on the bus again. We made it about ten minutes more before another stop, this one so those who had never seen three feet of snow before could get out in it, realize how deep it was, and fall on their faces. I suppose this is something for those on the bus who have never seen snow before, but growing up in Colorado in the United States, I just really wanted to see the fjords and Milford Sound. It seemed like a great deal of delay for such a small boat trip. As much as I fought it, this thought would permeate the entire day for me.
By the time we got to the boat, we were tired of being such a large group, tired of being on the bus, tired of dealing with tourists (I always joking say that we are “travelers”, Jen says “wanderers”, rather than tourists), and ready to be done with the tour only to find out even more people (about 200) would be on the boat. Jon kept a good mood, taking pictures on the front of the ship. Jen and I, however grabbed lunch and decided to take this trip as “lunch with a view”, and rather than fighting for foot room to take photos sat back and let the experience come to us. We both got up and took a few pictures here and there, but for the most part this was a poor tour, and we would end up wishing we had the day back. Missteps will happen from time to time when traveling, it’s all part of the overall experience, and now we know not to recommend this tour to others! The ride back would confirm it, hours and hours of driving with only one stop at yet another sales pitch (erm… I mean coffee shop with attached gift shop) and we were back in Queenstown. Tonight, we decided, we’d grab Indian food at a place called Tandoori Palace. The food was amazing, we ensured it was not only “spicy” but “extra-hot” (the same as the server said they would like to eat everyday), and enjoyed some good vegetarian paneer and a dish of butter chicken. We mopped it up with some garlic and cheese naan, and then went back to the hotel. It had been a very long, and somewhat disappointing, day… with a few highlights like seeing the beautiful mountains, watching a few individuals fall face-first into the snowbanks when their legs sunk in (yep, I’m a terrible person I know), and an amazing dinner once the bus ride finally ended.
