DAY FIVE

Another long bus trip, but this time through the mountains on the west coast to the sea and to see a place called Millford Sound. That bus trip was also absolutely stunning. This really was through Hobbit land. The scenery was pretty much exactly as in The Lord of the Rings and we even passed a few spots where it was actually filmed. Everything was so green and wet and lush, so vibrant with colour! And then we got to the mountains. Through those huge mountains that are nothing like we have in Australia. We don’t have anything that large here! They come out of nowhere to loom above you, looking dangerous and strangely beautiful at the same time. We got very close to the snow/ice here and we actually stopped at a slab of ice that came down to the edge of the road. Unfortunately though I had woken up feeling quite sick, after my sore throat had decided to migrate to my lungs, stomach and head, causing me to feel quite queasy. But I refused to let it ruin my tour and so I tried my best to ignore it. I managed to keep the contents of my stomach down for the entire trip which was a pretty good effort.

We got to Millford Sound in what seemed like a short amount of time, but then again I was just glad to be off the bus. We then got on a boat to go cruising around the magnificent inlet. Millford Sound is where the mountains meet the sea, literally. Those huge mountains just fall straight into the sea. And the sight is amazing. Funnily enough the moment I got on the boat I felt heaps better. The tables only sat six and I was last on the boat so that meant that I couldn’t fit at a table with my friends. So instead I made even more friends and sat at a table with Declan who I had briefly talked to, and Isaac, Coxy and Duncan, who I hadn’t talked to before. The waiter actually came up to us and said to me “How did you end up with all the guys?” to which I replied “I just got lucky I guess!”. They all laughed. Anyway, I took about 100 photos again of Millford Sound because it really is breathtaking. The way that it goes straight from those sharp, high snow peaks, to the green, green trees and then straight into that perfectly clear aqua water. How can anything be so perfect and picturesque?

By the time we got to our new accommodation at Queenstown I wasn’t feeling too good at all. I hated being sick. I barely made it through dinner and by the time it was eight o’clock I knew that I just had to go to bed. So I missed out on dessert (something I never do!) and was in bed asleep by 8:15pm. That meant that, added to the two hours sleep I got on the bus, I ended up getting 13hrs sleep that day. I spent more time asleep than awake! But it did the job because the next morning I was totally better! Well I had no voice, a totally blocked nose and a pretty annoying cough but at least my stomach had stopped churning and my head had stopped pounding! I could deal with the rest.