Queenstown and Milford Sound

Monday July 20th

We arrived in Queenstown and the night was a blur of Fergburger- delicious burgers (vegi of course!) that are massive and amazing. Tiffany and I split them, which was a good idea because we ended up eating them every night we were in town! Queenstown is supposedly the adventure capitol of the world- and party capitol of New Zealand. We made the most of it, which may not have been the best idea before getting on a bus at 6:20 the next morning, but some of us fared better than others.

Monday was the start of a 3 day Stray trip into the "deep south". Tif and I decided to do it last minute and got a really good deal on the package. We got to stay with Nicki and Laura changed the dates of her trip so she could come with us. Benni and Coco from the bus were also on the same trip so it was a lot of fun. Our guide for this portion was called Apples and we had a mini version of the Stray bus. Luckily it handled hills (and 2nd gear) much better, since it was mountainous and snowing and raining!

Milford Sound is actually not a sound at all (which is a valley carved out by a river) but is a fiord- a valley

 of water carved by a glacier. The whole area is called Fiordland and is spectacular. We made a lot of photo stops and saw more mirror lakes, lots of snow, mountains, more keas, and a tunnel carved out by hand in the 1930s.When we got to Milford we did a boat tour of the fiord. It was amazing to see just how big the whole thing is- it made me feel very small. Tons of waterfalls, some seals and plenty of rainbows. It was a clear day, but quite cold.

When we finished our cruise we went back up the road to Gunn's Camp, a 

little camp consisting of huts that

 were built to house the men who carved out the tunnel in the 30s. And they really haven't changed anything since then. 6 of us shared a little cabin that had 2 small rooms with bunk beds off a central room with a table and coal burning stove that provided the heat and was where we cooked our food. Talk about getting off the beaten path! 

The camp had a funky little museum with old tools and newspaper clippings, a tiny store that sold dehydrated peas and a few books, and a gas pump that was still actually pumped by hand. There were no refrigerators and the whole place was powered by a generator that was switched off at 10pm. After that we sat around in candlelight. Everyone was pretty skeptical in the beginning, but it turned out to be really nice. Benni was nominated to keep the fire going and he did a really good job. Our cabin was nice and cozy and we just enjoyed hanging out.