Ok, I know I was going to jump into the North Island of New Zealand but I found a few more pictures and stories that I forgot to include on the South Island. I guess that’s what happens when you are writing about a trip that was ten years ago! So let me back up here and return to where I left off in the Milford Sound. To read the last post on exploring the Milford Sound click here.
We rose early to the morning sun coming over the serene Milford Sound. It was yet another glorious day and not a soul was in sight. Paul and I enjoyed our last hour of solitude while we sailed back to shore where we would be boarding the oddly shaped Real Journeys bus back to Christchurch.
Everyone was tired and quiet on our long ride back to Queenstown. I for one looked awful, like I’d been punched in the eye. Actually I had an unfortunate encounter with a sand fly (that nasty thing bit me hard!) the day before while I was kayaking in the Sound and my left eyelid had swollen up like a balloon! That was a fun one to explain to a bunch of strangers!
We arrived in Queenstown by late afternoon and headed straightaway to the tourist office. We had one more thing to accomplish in Queenstown: Our very last adrenaline-pumping activity, Jet-boating. Luckily there was one last ride of the day. If we hustled, we would be able to catch the 5:30 pm jet-boat on the Shotover River just outside town. I should have been scared when I met our driver, a twentysomething Kiwi with a dangerous grin on his boyish face. But “no worries” as they love to say in New Zealand.