13/03/2018: Finally, it was time for the Milford Sound! We were picked up by a bus in the early morning and driven through the breathtaking scenery of the Lord of the Rings for 5 hours to reach the Milford Sound, the fjord on the west coast of the South Island, often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. The journey itself was stunningly beautiful, although quite long and exhausting:
Until now, we have handled the bus rides quite well, but on this day it started to annoy us, perhaps because we had been on the bus for so long, only to find out that the Milford Sound would not necessarily be one of our personal highlights. When we arrived at the fjord, the weather was still quite bad, the clouds were hanging very low and the water was more gray than blue. We spent two hours on a ship, cruising through the fjord, seeing endless waterfalls and seals. It was impressive to see these huge mountains passing by, especially when you look at the pictures, pay attention to the ships that look tiny next to the mountains. The highlight of our day was when the captain steered the ship towards the largest waterfall while we were standing outside on the deck. The waterfall was getting closer and closer, but we thought that the captain would not drive under it. Wrong! 😅 He drove straight under the waterfall, so we panicked and grabbed our cameras and phones and ran back inside the ship. It was funny! 😄 Here you can see the waterfall and some other impressions of the boat trip: Do you see that small ship on the lower left? This one: As you can see, we had a lot of fun during the trip and the weather didn't stop us from standing outside and admiring nature. Plus, we had free fish and chips for lunch, who can complain about that? 😋 However, it is true that over time it becomes harder to impress us, which is really scary! Maybe it was because the Milford Sound is hyped up so much that the expectations are sky high and the reality just can't live up to it. Maybe it was the weather. Either way, the experience was nice, but it was not one of the highlights of our trip or my journey. It was really annoying to drive five hours back afterwards, especially knowing that we would have to take another bus ride the next day. We were really looking forward to our tent with a view, which we enjoyed very much that evening. ♥️
14/03/2018: On Wednesday, we walked to our pickup point at sunrise because we wanted to start towards Lake Tekapo around 9 am.
After yesterday's somewhat disappointing day, this day was even more beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Lake Pukaki after a drive through flowers and hills. I have never seen a lake as turquoise or blue before! (If Thorben is reading this: We did consult each other!!! 😄) Just look at the pictures and decide for yourself whether the lake is more turquoise or blue. Either way, the lake was beautiful and we were incredibly lucky with the weather, because as soon as clouds appeared, the lake turned gray. Even the bus driver said that she had never seen the lake so bright. 😍 In the afternoon, we arrived at Lake Tekapo, a lake with the same vibrant color. By the way, these lakes get their color from glaciers. They are also called glacier lakes because they were formed by the melting glaciers a loooong time ago. Lake Tekapo, for example, was formed during the last ice age 17,000 years ago. The melted snow carried glacier dust into the water, which reflects the blue and green spectra of sunlight, making us humans perceive the water as particularly blue or turquoise. We had a super nice and relaxed afternoon at the lake:
In the evening, we went to a thermal bath located directly by the lake to relax our muscles, which were tense from the drive, at a water temperature of 38 degrees Celsius. It was a beautiful end to the day! Tomorrow we will continue to Christchurch, we're looking forward to it! See you soon, Sina and Karo 👋🏻 ♥️
