Anyway, to recap, after Queenstown, I booked myself onto a bus to head down to the most southerly point of NZ. It was a four day trip along the southern coast ending up in Milford Sound (a very deep waterway created by glaciers).
The first day, we landed in a university town called Dunedin. Cool place, but the weather took a nasty turn and it felt like winter. I had 2 long-sleeved shirts with me, and I literally layered 4 shirts and was still freezing (I’m thinking that contributed to this cold). None of us were in a party mood, so a bunch of the girls in my room went to go see The Other Bolyn Girl. It was actually pretty good. The next day we headed into the Catlains, which is a really beautiful stretch of coastline famous for it’s seals, penguin, and sea lion colonies. The weather seemed to be getting worse, so luckily, we didn’t have much to do that day other than try to spot wildlife, which we did. We got to see two sea lions in their natural habitat, and man are they some silly creatures. They seem so adorable and cuddly until they rear up and charge at you (I saw this happen... it was pretty funny).
We also got to see ONE yellow-eyed penguin…from about 50 miles away. It was unfortunate that the weather was so bad, cause in that area, there are lots of little dolphins that you can swim with if you’re lucky. But that’s the way it goes…can’t really control the weather so you hope for the best and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. I’ve tried to stop worrying about it so much because despite some pretty rough days, the sun seemed to always be out when we needed it most. We also ventured down to a petrified forest on the shoreline. That wasn’t nearly as cool as the weirdness that lay on top of the rocks and petrified trees. The kelp, seaweed, and plant life that thrives in that area is as strange as it gets. I swear, it looked like an alien war zone. Long, rubbery tangles of material unlike any I’ve ever seen or felt littered the rocks as far as the eye cold see. The Maori used to make socks out of the stuff, but the thought of it touching me for any extended period of time sort of creeped me out.
I mean, this has to be entrails, right?
Some strange creature must have slithered out of this... Is that a hand?
Pretty awesome :)
Next stop was a place in Invercargill where the wind just does not stop blowing. The trees can seriously attest to this! The starkly beautiful landscape is sculpted by the wind…it’s amazing that wildlife can even survive in those conditions but it always finds a way.
After that, the weather miraculously cleared up, and as quickly as the storm can in, it left without a trace. (I wasn’t about to trust that the sun would stay out for long, but indeed it did. We got very lucky). Our final stop on the way to the next town was McCracken’s rest. This is a bit too much McCracken for me, but it was a pretty good laugh.
Next, we made our way to the sleepy town of TeAnau and I finally got to get some exercise. It was the first time I had the chance to really move since my hike up the mountain (and the first time since then that my legs felt normal!) I took a jog around the lake and despite the fact that a serious cold was coming on, I felt fantastic. Well, unfortunately, that afternoon before my run, I had consumed 2 cups of coffee and I was up ALL NIGHT that night. Not in the best of shape for the trip the next morning to Milford Sound. It was a pity as well, because I had a good 9 hours of possible sleep that were totally wasted. I think sleep is more precious than money these days, and that’s saying a lot.
It’s been said that visiting NZ without seeing Milford sound is like going to Egypt without seeing the pyramids. Um, this might be sacrilege, but I just didn’t get what all the fuss was about. Milford sound was really nice and all, but I thought it totally overrated. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, with huge soaring mountains and a nice fjord flowing though it all, but I don’t know, I didn’t think it was worth the energy expended to get there. Plus, all the postcard pics boast mirror still water and perfect sunset reflections of the snow-capped peaks; we were there in mid-day and the water was somewhat rough so there were no picture perfect reflections to be had. To boot, the much-hyped “underwater observatory” practically made me laugh. There was like, one fish and some scraggly coral. After a somewhat anticlimactic day, we were offered the option of flying back to Queenstown rather than sitting on the bus for 5 hours. It was pricey, but we a huge discount and my friend and I decided to spring for it. OH MY GOD am I glad we did. Milford sound might be blah from the ground, but it it steller as seen from above. Flying over turquoise lakes, glaciers, winding and shining rivers that looked like molten gold…just…wow. The best part was that the flight was only 40 minutes so we got back to Queenstown 4 hours before the bus did.
So the entire day today was spent on the bus to Christchurch, out of which I'm flying tomorrow at 7am. That means I have to be out of the hostel, on a shuttle, at 4:30 am. That's gonna put me right on the road back to health! I am going to bed in 5 minutes.
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