Sunday, February 20, 2011

Day #18. Milford Sound, cont.

I regretted my decision to spend the night in Milford Sound as soon as the sun started going down.  First of all, the sand flies swarmed you if you even stuck your head outside.  It was pretty bad.  Second, the weather wasn't great and rain was expected all day the next day.  Third, there was absolutely nothing to do around Milford other than the cruise (which I had already done), the famous "3-day" Milford backpacking trek (obviously I couldn't do that), or kayaking (didn't want to spend $130 to kayak in the rain).  Oh, and fourth, I learned that the Milford Lodge charged you $5 just to sit around in their lounge waiting for the afternoon bus.  Milford is beautiful and I loved seeing it, but I wouldn't recommend staying overnight to anyone in the future.

However, one random cool thing did happen.  Some Irish girls clambered into my room just as I had gotten into bed around 8 pm.  They insisted that I come out with them to the one local cafe/pub and hang out with the locals.  At first I was like, noooo I'm so tired.  But they said, "When are you ever going to have this opportunity to hang out with some true blooded, real backwoods kiwis?!"  Ok fine.  And you know what?  It actually turned out all right.  There were some local musicians playing and we did meet and talk with some bonifide, genuine, hard-working "country" kiwi kids.  A very unique evening, to say the least.  When I did get to bed I slept like a log and didn't wake up until 9:45 am.

Then for the next 6 hours I sat around in the lodge - I paid $5 for it, might as well take advantage of it!  Surfed the web for all of 30 minutes before my 20 megabytes ran out.  Ate a bowl of oatmeal, an orange, and a strawberry yogurt.  Gossiped with the Irish girls about the crazy, weird locals we had met the previous night.  Talked to some travelers from Montana.  Watched Zoolander for the 1st time.  Had no idea how many phrases people say come from that movie!!!  "Age before beauty".. "blue steel".. "derelict your balls".. etc. :)  Pretty hilarious, that movie.  Made myself a bowl of easy mac for lunch.  Tried to go outside but that lasted about 0.3 seconds as the sand flies attacked me.  Played some Sarah Mclachlan on the old lounge piano.  Eventually made it over to the ferry terminal to catch my 4 o'clock bus back to Queenies.

Rachel was on the bus!!!  Yay!  She told me about her "Nevis" bungy experience from yesterday and I was very jealous.  The bus driver put a Kiwi movie on called The Fastest Indian which at first was super boring, but by the end my eyes were wet.  Don't ask why I got so emotional, I just did!  It was a cute movie, although Rachel still insisted it was dull to the core and put her iPod on.

A long 4 hours later we were back in Queenstown.  I was famished, so after an hour's stroll around the town and waterfront I headed to Fergberger.  As I was standing in line, someone tapped the back of me and said, "I was wondering if I'd ever find ya again!"  Well if you don't say, it was 'ole Peter himself!!!  I gave him a huge bear hug and he had the biggest smile on his face :)  I invited him to come in and eat with me.  "What's a Fergberger??" he asked.  What's a Fergberger?!?!  Come inside, my friend…..

I ordered the fish fillet this time, and Peter got a regular cheeseburger.  They were absolutely delicious.  We caught up over the week's happenings, then I said goodnight and waddled back to my hostel with a very, very full belly.  I still can't bend over and it's been an hour since I ate the thing.

Plan:  another long bus ride to Dunedin

Budget:  $5 milford lodge to "hang out" all day, $6 internet, $5 movie rental, $4 big bag of BBQ chips, $26 hostel, $15 Fergberger/water

2 comments:

  1. Came in under budget. Im very proud of you... Happy you found Peter. Travel safe HJB.

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  2. Oh man, Peter. I was hoping he'd pop back into your stories....he dresses EXACTLY like dad with his socks pulled up to his knees, shorts hoisted over his t-shirt, and that hat dad likes to wear.haha

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