So it was a BIG mistake cause when I called them this morning that place had already gone with the next availability being 3 days after, too late for me. So instead I tried for Milford Sound overnight, they had 1 place on Sunday night, so I went through the process of trying to book it online but as usual I was trying to do too many things at the same time and managed to close the booking window half way through the booking and of course when I went back on to the site it was fully booked! Are you getting a good idea as to how the morning was going?? So, I called up the tour company and explained what I had done to them in the hope that on their system it would still be showing 1 spare place.......but no, as far as they were concerned it was fully booked!! Feeling a little disheartened about the whole thing I wasn’t sure of my next move except that I needed to check out of the hostel. As a last chance saloon I headed off to the I-site to see if they could help me out and fortunately by the time I got there my ‘half’ booking had cancelled itself out and there was a spare place again on the overnight Milford Sound and it was MINE!
Having bagged the last bunk on the boat I then headed off down to Queenstown which is the extreme sports capital of the world (apparently)! After Wanaka though I wasn’t really that keen on staying there so made a plan to just pass through.
On the way to Queenstown I came across Arrowtown which is an interesting little place that sprang up in the 1860s following the discovery of gold in the Arrow River. I had made a plan, and a booking, to head off to Te Anau for the night before my Milford Sounds cruise so it was just a fleeting visit here really before making my way to Queenstown.
Queenstown actually had quite a nice feel to it despite its size; I wandered around the main town area before making my way to the underwater observatory on the quay. Now that was great fun, its run by the same people who run the jet boat and they’ve constructed this underwater viewing area to see some of the life in the lake. They have a coin operated fish food dispensing machine which was great. There were loads of fish and even an eel there but the best sight was the teal ducks which would dive down 4 or 5 meters each time food was released and steal it from the fish! They were super cute and actually managed to get quite a lot of the food off of the fish.
The diving duck!
Other life in the lake
Heading out of Queenstown finally I see sheep (!) although still not as many as I was hoping, I am at least seeing some. I allowed around another 2 hours for the drive to Te Anau, my directions to the hostel were that it was about 2 km out of town, somehow though, I think it was all the driving I was doing, I managed to drive
around 10 km out of town before realising my mistake! Tonight’s hostel is on a large estate run by Bob and Maxine gaining its name Bob and Maxines backpackers (!).
A great place though with everything you could possibly need including a copy of each of the Lord of the Rings movies! Each hostel seems to have a set (maybe they’re given out by the movie makers as advertisement) and it seems to be the favourite movie for everyone I meet!
Sheep!
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