We’re currently making our way up to Wanaka and have just finished our Subway breakfast, which was very painful to obtain as some people in the queue in front of us were apparently not entirely familiar with the Subway concept. Quentin did very well in staying in the queue, or is it Q? Yesterday was simply too busy a day to keep up with the admin side of things so here goes.
We had a kayak trip planned for yesterday morning, which was the reason for spending an additional night in Te Anau. I’m not sure anymore why, when planning this trip, I thought it’d be a good idea to have another early morning. All the packing had to be done prior to our 07:15 hrs pickup as we had to check out of the hotel before 10 o’clock. I was really questioning the wisdom of wanting to do a kayaking trip after being woken up in the middle of the night by a severe gale and rain storm. Fortunately, by the time we made it to our boating departure point, weather had cleared up sufficiently to believe that exposing ourselves to the elements in our fashionable kayaking gear shouldn’t cause us too much frostbite.
As we’d be making our way up Milford Sound under only our own peddle steam power, we’d obviously be able to cover only a short section of this beautiful fjord in the short time allotted for this trip. From the kayak we were able to spot some seals along the banks of the fjord and generally were able to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the quiet on the water.
After roughly 4½ hrs of peddling and not too many moments with sufficient potential for a divorce (we had to share a 2-man sea kayak), we were back on land and only wet in the feet and bum areas, which are larger areas in some of us than in others.
Time for breakfast and lunch! Although, wouldn’t it be a better idea to see if we’d perhaps be able to catch an earlier bus back to Te Anau, rather than just hang around Milford Sound, waiting for the 5 o’clock bus, especially as weather wasn’t too great to be wanting to contemplate any long hikes?
Right! Let’s see what we can do! Walk up to the bus terminal, ask a bus driver of the company we’d be using if there would be any spaces on the earlier bus. Yes! we could come on the 14:30 hrs bus. However, this meant we had to rush back to the hotel to pick up our packs, rush back to the terminal to catch our bus (45 minutes were given us to complete all this) and thus skip breakfast/lunch. Ah well, we hadn’t had enough exercise yet so off on our mad dash we went.
Now trust me when I say it isn’t easy running with a full (in my case 20 kg at least) pack on your back. Fun, but not easy! Fortunately, we managed to hitch a ride on a local shuttle bus for part of the way back. This actually left us with time to spare and we could have had a quick bite after all, were it not for the fact that there was no food to be had at the terminal. Fortunately for Quentin, we were able to obtain some chocolate bars which satiated his need for a fix of something.
The bus ride back was uneventful but scenic. We were back at the hotel around 5 o’clock which left us with plenty of time for a cuppa, shower and some domestic chores in the form of washing prior to meeting up with Brigitte for dinner, one of the women in our group on the Milford Track.
We managed to achieve all set tasks, and more as Q worked his way through out IT stuff, before heading off for dinner at the Redcliff in Te Anau. We had a most wonderful meal there with some very innovative food combinations. Of course, the wine flowed freely and a most enjoyable evening was had by one and all.
By midnight Q’s eyes were nearly falling shut, with the rest of his aging body in close pursuit, so off to bed we went. With no major plans for tomorrow, except a drive to our New Year’s stop in Wanaka, we were under no obligation to set the alarm for an early rise.
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