MILFORD SOUND 2 DAYS TURNED INTO 4 - WHAT AN ADVENTURE

No we didn’t fall off the face of the earth!!! But we have had an adventure that was unbelievable. We got off the ship in the early morning Monday in Milford Sound and we just returned to the ship today in Auckland. The ship was supposed to pick us up in two days in Dundein. The ship couldn’t get into the Dundein harbor because of gale force winds and had to abort that port of call. So on Tuesday morning we got the word at our hotel in Queenstown that our land tour would be extended until Friday. Several folks complained but Sam and I relished the opportunity to see more of New Zealand and best of all Princess picked up the tab for everything including flying us from Queens town to Auckland.

Here’s how it went:

Monday morning we pulled into Milford Sound and it was pitch dark and we were waiting to disembark on a motor launch which would take us to shore to board our bus. As the ship pulled into the Fjord you could feel the walls of the fjord rise up massively on each side – it was pitch black and then little by little the light started to seep into the fjord and the mist came down to the meet the mountains. It was eerie at best. The Milford Sound has a continual mist and shrouds the mountains and it is almost “other world” like to see this. There never seems to be any clarity to anything it is like everything is smoke and mirrors if that makes any sense. At any moment I expected to hear some music from Phantom of the Opera.

I have to admit there was a moment when we watched the Sapphire turn in the fjord and leave us there that I had second thoughts – it was strange watching the ship pull away and we were on this little boat. But the fjord itself quickly caught our interest again and that moment passed. The fjord just seems to rise up majestically from the sea and the mist comes and goes making it seem like something from Disney. The best description I can give is that is hauntingly beautiful and majestic.

Once on land we were met by our “motor coach” and driver. Our driver was Marty and was dressed in full Scottish attire – kilt, knee socks and “Jumper” which is a sweater to us Americans. Fun guy and we had a great time with him while he was our driver.

First off, we went to the “Chasm” which is almost like a puzzle but it is all stone – it is amazing how the water and glaciers created this unique stone “chasm” and that is just what it is all – all twists and turns and it never seems to end it just goes on and on.

Then we went thru a tunnel that went thru the entire mountain about 1.5 miles and when we came out on the other side there was SNOW. Oh joy!! It was beautiful but cold and windy – no wonder Sam has a cold we’ve gone thru how many time zones and how many climate changes.

From there we went on down the road toward Queenstown first stopping at a lovely little village called Te Anu where we had lunch – which really wasn’t so great. It was cold cuts but no bread – go figure – there was fruit so we filled up on that. There is always a way to make do.

Leaving Te Anu we drove through some unbelievable country – New Zealand has about a million sheep stations but also “deer parks” and that was a bit strange seeing deer grazing about in the field. But like Sam said, if someone is feeding them they aren’t about to leave. There were also lots of dairy cows. MOOOOOOO.
When we arrived in Queenstown it was just starting to get dark and the lake there was a bit rough with white caps. We were scheduled to take an early 1900’s type steamship to Walter’s Peak Homestead for dinner. It was about a 40 minute ride across the lake to an old sheep station which has been converted into a wonderful restaurant, gift shop and still is a working farm of sorts to give demonstrations on sheep shearing etc. The restaurant is housed in the original homestead and had huge high windows and beautiful woodwork and flooring. Dinner was really good – several strange dishes – for instance beef stroganoff but with a tomato base instead of a cream one, also served carved beef, the ever present cold cuts, salad, potatoes, rolls and wonderful creamy vegetable soup followed by the a dessert buffet - Sam loved the chocolate cake while I like the apple crisp which they served with vanilla pudding on top of. Yum. Then the boat ride back to the hotel – but many did that boat rock (not literally) with the sing along they had on the way home. I know it sounds hokey but they handed out booklets of old songs and had a sing-along. The folks from the Princess tour really got into it and we had the boat rockin.

The next morning we got us and breakfast they gave us the news that we wouldn’t be meeting the ship. Instead we toured all day long (with the exception of Sam who by this time had a full blown cold and was miserable. He was able to spend the day in bed at the hotel since we would be spending another night in Queenstown.) First stop was the original bungee jumping site (in the entire world) and one of the folks with our group (he was a retired Marine) jumped. NO way was I going to even go near the railing. Scared the crap out of me to watch it. I did go out onto the platform and then inched my way back to “safety” But you can watch the jump on the monitors and it was fun to do that that. All I could think about as I watched this was how much we teased our friend, Gladys, on our Venice cruise about bungee jumping. Gladys – girlfriend you could have seriously had some fun here.

Back onto the bus for more touring and lunch at Lake Roxbourgh. It was a bit chilly but sunny and a very clear day so we were able to see a lot of the country side. This area of New Zealand reminds me a lot of Colorado and Utah. Our last stop of the day was Arrowhead where this weekend is there HUGE fall festival. It is so strange to see the leaves changing color and falling off the trees and the leaves underfoot. The Arrowhead festival draws people from several hundred miles. It is a quaint old gold mining town and perfectly preserved and, of course, the zillion touristy type shops. I did find a wonderful New Zealand wool sweater that I splurged on for myself – I got Sam some cough syrup – I’m such a thoughtful wife – I get an beautiful expensive sweater he gets cough syrup – what more can a guy ask for??? We were back at the hotel by about 4:30 and I woke Sam up and later on that evening we went to the hotel restaurant to eat but he was still not feeling so great.

Friday morning we got up and prepared to leave Queenstown but we didn’t have to leave until 1:45 so I took the bus into town and walked around – looked into some of the shops and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Sam stayed back as he was trying to conserve his energy for the flight to Auckland. So we were bused to the airport around 1:30 and took a flight to Auckland. From there Princess took us to another nice hotel and we had dinner again. Friday morning we were brought back to the ship – when same and I got off the bus a bunch of the group from cruise critic were waiting for their tour and sent up a cheer for us. What a wonderful opportunity we had – I certainly wouldn’t want to have the weather happen but since it did we benefitted from it.

We are now alongside in Auckland. We originally had a tour scheduled but decided to not take it – we wanted clean clothes ( we had the same jeans on for four days and I took underwear for 2 days) so we felt pretty grubby to say the least. We got cleaned up and Sam decided for a nap since he is trying desperately to get rid of his cold before we hit the islands. So I changed and went into town and walked around, went to the old Customs building and several other places like that (everyone knows how much I love history).
New Zealand is one of the most awesome places I have ever been too. We would come back here in a heart beat.

Good to be back “home” after our wonderful adventure. This trip is so wonderful – who could have guessed we would have such an adventure.

Ok, back to the mundane life on ship – you know – eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sex, sleep (just checking to see who was paying attention!) Onto the next adventure – that will be Fiji – and a day at the beach.
We are really happy campers!!!

Sam and Char