It's another bright-and-early-day in New Zealand. Today we're catching a bus to Milford Sound, part of the Fjordland National Park. Fjords: they're not just for Scandinavia anymore.The bus ride is going to be about four hours long but we've got a pit stop for breakfast about halfway through and our bus driver-slash-tour guide, Keith, is hilarious and very informative. For instance, did you know that a lot of the world's car commercials are filmed in New Zealand? No? He tells us that a lot of times you'll see hot new cars around there that have the steering wheel on the "wrong" side. He said one of the most recent ones was a Buick commercial, and, as I write this at home in May, I think I've seen it.
We stop at a few more pit stops for photos once we're in the park itself before arriving at the Milford Sound tour boat depot. At one of the stops, we can even fill up our water bottles with freshly melted glacier water that we can drink. I drink some of it and then start to worry about parasites so I figure I'll save it and make my tea with it tomorrow morning when it can be properly boiled. I guess I am not really a nature person.
When we get to the boat loading area we see this very cool looking mountain. We are told it's called Mitre Peak and -- guess what? -- it's the photo on the front of my NZ travel guide! I think that says something about the comprehensiveness of our trip. I have my picture taken with the mountain as a souvenir. I am finding that the photos I am taking are going to be my primary souvenirs. They better be, since I end up with 800 photos because of my super-huge memory card.
We get back to Queenstown with plenty of time for more eats. We eat, walk around some more, have a pint in another Irish pub (what is it with these people and Irish pubs? They're all over the place) and skip the bus up to our hotel and decide to walk. Whew. It was a lot higher up the hill than I thought.
