Milford Sound

This day was booked long in advance and as prepared as we were , we were still not prepared enough . We started our day in Dunedin where I went to Starbucks as soon as I woke up to make up for being a drunk ass the night before . Remember I mentioned how us men have to atone for our sins ? This is the paved road to Kathleen’s heart ❤️ ! Last thing I want is her still angry at me for getting drizzy last night . Coffee in hand walked back to our nice room and began getting ready to drive to Queenstown where we have a 2 pm flight on a small plane to Milford Sound . The drive is about 3.5 hours so we decided to leave at 9 am and get going . As we were driving Kathleen checked our itinerary and it said our pickup to go to the plane was 12:50 pm which leaves us little to no time to stop to eat , pee or look at the amazing landscape 😕 shitty ...

The roads are windy and as I said there is no time to stop and if we get there at our scheduled time then we should arrive at 12:30 pm giving us just enough time to check in (?) park car and meet our scheduled pickup . Yeah we gotta do that within 20 minutes ! As we were leaving Dunedin we finally figured out how to get the map system in this piece of shit car to work , it has an internal one duh 🙄 still dislike this vehicle but I gots ta deal wit it . On the road we were making good time as I was doing 10 Km over the limit to try buying us time and then Kathleen had to pee .... damn so I pull over in a small town in the middle of nowhere and as I’m doing that I almost ran over a woman . For some reason she walked onto the road to cross to her car with what I would assume was her son sitting in the car on the opposite side of the road , when I pulled in I had to reverse to not block a driveway and she must have stepped out and as I was reversing she was on my drivers side and it caught me off guard and I glanced across the road and saw her son shaking his head ... in my mind I just said fuck her it’s her fault that she’s an idiot walking behind parking cars and ignored him as I’m sure he looked at me with piercing eyes even though as I said earlier ... her fault , and I drove away without confrontation . No time for that shit ! And if I would have hit her I would have jumped out the car and said why are you on the road ? I would have blamed her and hopefully she would have been ok but I mean you know she wouldn’t be but whatever that’s all in hindsight and I’m passed that even though I’m thinking about it two days later as I’m writing this lol 😝 

Pee brake done , still gonna make it on time and I’m making up a bit more time to make an excuse to stop and grab a quick burger as I’m starved and I’m sure there is nothing to eat in Milford Sound which means we won’t eat until at least dinner time ... I could use the diet but I’m not gonna go starving myself so what does one do when looking for a quick fix ? Oh there’s McDonalds ! You guessed it , gobble gobble gobble . I scarfed that thing like a great white eating a small animal . We are staying at The Crowne Plaza and when we pulled up I just parked the car out front as Kathleen ran in and found out all parking is valet and we were told to leave the car where it was and bring in the keys ... as I’m handing the keys over in the foyer our bus driver arrives . No time to check in or anything . We made it just on time , maybe with 5 minutes to spare max . I was not really excited that this was all going so fast and I was a bit knackered from push8ng the pedal for 3.5 hours non stop only to jump into another vehicle as I could really use a breather but it is what it is right ? 

On the flight to Milford Sound we had the front row behind the pilot and there was a couple families with a litter of children ... yeah you guessed it my favourite type of children , crying fucking babies ! Now some of you have kids and that’s great but I don’t and I probably never will and if you ask me there is a time and a place to have crying babies with you and this probably wasn’t the time or place in my opinion . Now you can hate me for this and that’s fine but I’m not really into spending $500 to be on a really small plane with a crying screaming baby and I’m not into that crying  screaming baby to be on a boat with me either ... it’s just not my thing . If there was an option for adults only I would gladly take and pay for it but in my opinion the flight with babies should cost the family with the crying baby more for inconveniencing everyone else ... just my opinion and you don’t have to like it . Don’t get me wrong and think I hate children but the crying baby thing sucks ! It makes me wonder ... why do you need to go on a tour today , this year with your baby ? Why ? The baby won’t remember it ! Can’t you wait a couple years and take the baby when it’s old enough to remember and not crying ? Or maybe you can leave the baby with someone you trust instead of bringing it because you need to go to do this today for some reason ? Ahh whatever it’s a pain for me and I sure as hell hope they had to pay for the baby to do all this and I’m not gonna research that or it may piss me off even more because if you ask me the baby should pay full price or even more for being a nuisance to others ... yes I know the fucking baby can’t help itself but the parents sure can 👍 .... so I couldn’t hear anything on this flight becuase the engine was loud but somehow I could still hear a baby screaming . YAY !

Now with my rant over baby travellers over I can tell you I did my best to keep smiling even though I’m tired and annoyed .... the view from the plane is inspiring and I’m so glad we paid for this over the bus route even with a screaming baby . The flight was 35 minutes and when we landed we were escorted to a bus that took us to the ferry terminal and you can bet your bottom dollar that I sat as far away from those 3 babies as possible 😃. At the terminal we waited for our ferry to board and we basked in the sun as it was a beautiful day out with blue skies and not a cloud in sight , we were really lucky as the climate here changes at the drop of a dime . Time to board the ferry ⛴ for a 2 hour cruise ... I hate being on boats especially when there is no liquor involved and almost immediately we realize that we should have brought some with us to ease the pain . I just dislike and have a fear for open water .... always have and always will ! I don’t go swimming or usually do boats but Kathleen really wanted to do this so I bite the bullet . We saw some beautiful water falls and some seals basking in the sun and even caught a glimpse of a dolphin ! It was great but long and by the time we got back to the dock I was happy to get off the boat and onto land . 

Our pilot was waiting at the ferry dock for us with our bus and we all boarded and headed back for the airstrip to board our plane which now I was invited to sit up front with the pilot 🤗 I was beaming with joy and got up front to capture the view from the front and it’s awe inspiring to see someone driving a vehicle and then .... you’re in the air , driving . It’s almost mind boggling to realize this is really a thing and I said that to our pilot and he laughed and said yeah it is but I’m used to it . He was a cool dude and I think that’s a prerequisite with pilots isn’t it ? At this point even a screaming baby isn’t gonna bother me lol 😝 I was so zoned out watching him fly with such ease . I tried to figure it all out and I think I understand the instruments enough to try it myself but I will spare you all and stick to being a land lover . Driving a car and almost running over people is enough excitement for me . If I flew I can imagine myself landing on highways and places I don’t belong hahaha . 

What a crazy non stop day ! Now we have to get back to our hotel and actually check in drop our bags off and figure out dinner . Our room is awesome and I would say it’s number 1 out of the now 7 we have stayed in and that’s mainly because of the view ! We have a balcony with a table and chairs that overlooks Lake Wakatipu with the mountain range as a backdrop . The hotel has ice and limes and we have a bottle of gin so we go out to grab snacks and tonic and have ourselves a drink on our balcony while watching the world go by and laughing about the pains of today and it was really nice . That drink was much deserved and it was now time to hit the town and find a place to grab a bite to eat . We wandered along the wharf and every place we walked by was rammed with people enjoying the sun and having a meal . We passed by a place called Pub on Wharf which had a good selection of food we were both craving and we found ourselves a table where we decided to have another drink and ordered our meals . Kathleen had the chicken part and I had ribs .... my ribs were ok but there was more bone then meat and the coleslaw that accompanied the meal was dry with no dressing and I had to hunt down a server to obtain some vinegar .... Kathleen liked this place but I would say it was ok at best . There was a band playing live music which were all covers from the 70’s and 80’s and they were good but I was not in the mood for anything loud and after my meal all I wanted was my bed . Tomorrow will be my first time zip lining and I want to make the most of really our only full day in Queenstown . 

My first thoughts about Queenstown are that it’s basically a ski town / adventure town that is overpriced and filled with tourists . It’s really nice here but I’m happy we are only staying a few days as I highly doubt that even the locals are locals . Everyone we met on our stay so far that live here are not from here and are either young travellers working to stay and travel more or people that moved here from other cities in New Zealand that specialize in something to add to the environment . Again don’t get me wrong , I like it here it’s beautiful and I don’t hate children 😜