It seems to be one of the most famous touristy things to do in New Zealand, so I thought I would write a fair bit about our little day adventure to Milford Sound, even if we did spend most of it on a bus. Not my idea of fun to be honest...

A couple of us earlier on in the week were toying with the idea of hiring a car from Queenstown to Milford Sound, but in the end we opted just to do the trip through a tour company. The group consisted of a French girl, A German girl, a Dutch lad, a southerner, and me (the Northerner). A good mix if I say so myself. The bus took around 6 hours which inlcluded a few toilet and food stops, and scenic walks on the way. The scenery on the way was pretty spectacular, and not something you see in Britain, but after a while of seeing it, you tend to just take it for granted and wish the bus journey would end. When we did finally arrive at Milford Sound, we got onto the cruise and had our free lunch. The cruise lasted just under 2 hours, and I don't think the weather helped us produce very good photographs due to the wet wind and cold. We saw some good scenery on this cruise, but we saw some good scenery on the ferry over from the North Island to the South Island to be fair, and at a fraction of the price.

The boat drove straight towards a big waterfall and me being daft got as close up to it as I could, due to me not being one to shy away from a good photo opportunity. Most of the people on the boat ran for cover though.....booo. There were a few Aussies on the cruise tour, and they saw the Tasman sea flowing in all its glory. They came all that way to see the same sea that's in Australia.

The lack of good quality content in this blog shows really how I think the Milford Sound is slightly over rated. Its good scenery and we did get free fish and chips at the end, but another 6 hour coach journey on the way back where half the coach headed for the plastic bags due to the rough terrain made me think 'was it really worth it'?

There is apparently a better place to go on the South Island which is similar to Milford Sound, and it's not half as 'touristy', but I'm done now with boats until my trip from Picton (south Island) back up to the North Island. Not the most positive piece of writing you will ever read, but I'm staying true to my word and being as honest as I can with all the places I visit. Just too much travelling on a coach all day really, but maybe I may have wrote a more positive account if it was only 20 minutes down the road from where I was staying. What I just wrote seemed to be the general opinion of the whole group really. Some other people we spoke to who hired a car had said how it was one of the best experiences they had done whilst travelling. Interesting how peoples opinions differ. I just think our tad disappointment in Milford Sound was an accumulation of the weather, and the long bus journey. It was scenery we don't see everyday of the week, but I still thought the whole 'cruising Milford Sound' was slightly overated.

One final day in Queenstown and then we head to Mount Cook and steadily make our way up North where my final destination in NZ will be Auckland.