Milford sound and good times in Queenstown

8^th of april. 

We arrived in Milford sound about 4 pm after one great taxi ride. The scenery was so beautiful. Such a shame I managed to sleep through half of it… I some how thought it was a 3 hour ride. It was only 45 minutes. Oh well!!! We checked in at the Milford Lodge and were positively surprised by the place, it had an awesome lounge and a little shop that we straight away bought crisps and chocolate from. We ate and ate and it was soooo gooood. And the nice receptionist turned out to be almost exactly from where we lived in Stockholm, Hagersten. Just one street below us. Small world ey! Had a nice Swedish chat with him. He had been there for 3 years!!

In the evening, after eating for about 2 hours…we thought we needed to go for a walk and we wanted to see a proper milford sound sunset. It was magical!! (Magical is a word I will use a lot in this post!!) After that we craved a big cold beer, so we went to a pub nearby called ‘the blue duck’. It was a good beer and a very nice pub! Life couldn’t be better, really, magical..

9^th of april. 

We woke up ready to kayak. Milford fjord here we come!! (We are told milford sound is misleading…cos its not a sound, it is a fjord…they just didn’t know what a fjord was back then.) Our guide was a proper kiwi, really funny and very passionate about his thing! We were only 7 people, a good group. The kayaking went amazingly well, me and dave had some communication issues at times but not major…(we shared a kayak)…hehe. All I can say is that Milford fjord is a magical place…and it has to be experienced! We were pretty lucky with the weather, the wind on our side and blue sky! Although the guide said there is no bad weather when it comes to milford, if it rains there are amazing waterfalls that you don’t get otherwise. But we were happy with the sunshine and we got to experience one powerful waterfall anyway that is always there no matter what. Magical.

Now we had to focus on getting back to Queenstown where our friends Steven and Cecile were waiting for us to celebrate…loads of things…but mostly that Cecile is getting married to Mark in 13 days!!

It was a wonderful night with pizzas, beers, dancing, a man in a club who voluntarily stripped for Cecile (hahhaha) and more dancing!! So much fun!!

Routeburn track.

HEY! Im going to give english blogging a go for all our english fans out there ;) It wont be perfect but hopefully it will be understandable.

Its the 5th of april....We have packed everything, played a last round of the german card game 'Geshenkt'. We are now saying goodbye to Omarama and our lovely friends...although not forever. In 5 days Steven and Cecile will meet up with us in Queenstown for a celebration, yey:)!
Before we step on the bus towards Q-town we can see that the first snow of the year has settled on the mountains...like a symbol for an end of an era. But this is also the day we have so long been waiting for, the day before we starting the Routeburn track. Our big adventure! We have no idea what to expect but we know its going to be something special.

First day of the track.
We got on the shuttle bus to Glenorchy and the starting point. Its very early in the morning and i want to say that we were full of energy and excitement, but the tiredness from a sleepless night(too excited to sleep) was undeniable...To make it better we sat next to this american old couple on the bus, who talked and talked and talked, loud...usually i think its fun to listen to other peoples conversations on buses, but this was something else, and again, very early in the morning haha.
As soon as we jumped off the bus we luckily felt less tired and more excited. The adventure could begin. The first people we met on the track gave us their walking stick...a great stick!! Didnt know then exactly how much that stick was going to help us. Which was loads!!
After an hour of walking we stopped for our first fika in a beautiful area next to a river. Crackers cheese and salami was on the menu! It was sensational.
The last 2 hours walking before we came to the hut was very steep and hard work. Sweat was pouring down in our faces. Felt good to finally be able to sit down and just relax in a very cosy but cold hut. We went up on a hill in the evening to watch the sunset and drink some baileys. Life was good.

Second day.
Didnt get a lot of sleep cos of a heavy snore-chestra + freezing our arses off in our 'summer sleeping bags' that we borrowed. Hehe. Didnt research our sleeping bags ability enough. Oh well the weather was beautiful, and we had a spectacular walk ahead of us this day, the best bit they say!!! And it was AMAZING. We stopped too many times to take photos and to take everything in but it was totally overwhelming so i dont think my brain absorbed even half of it all. Lakes, mountains, dave with his backpack and the stick which made him look like Gandalf, oh god, too much!
We also did an extra climb which was very icy....we stopped half way up and gave it a second thought, i was not convinced to keep going... could not understand at all how one could get back down alive...but we are both too stubborn to give up. It took us 2 hours return, and i must say the view was well worth it. We saw all the way to Milford sound. Breathtaking. And we got down alive by using our bums a lot. After this dramatic part it was a very even and beautiful walk, and we could talk properly to each other as we were not out of breath all the time, felt nice.
Our cheese and salami tasted just as nice today!! And the coffee of course.
When we got to our second hut after about 6 hours of walking, we were not so fresh...so we went to a nearby lake to have a wash. It was ice cold but very refreshing.
After that we had soup for dinner and some chunky bread. We made some friends on the way that we spent the evening with talking laughing and eating their amazing chocolate...
Then the man of the hut came to talk to us about what we had seen this day and some practical stuff. He was very funny and spoke about anything you can imagine...he drifted away from every subject and probably told us way more than he was supposed to, it was more like a stand up show than an information speech. We also had a beautiful evening and the sky was bright pink. After that we went to bed with gloves on, hats, socks, 3 layers and a big smile on our faces...and we had a nice and warm
sleep.

Third day.
We started early cos we had a bus to catch from the finish point, the bus to milford sound.
Weather was good, we were eager to finish our track and get to milford..there was still loads of nice scenery to enjoy but we were eager... It took us 4 or 5 hours to walk the last bit. And the feeling when we reached the goal was a feeling of victory. WE DID IT!!! Our legs and backs were in pain, but we were in heaven,,hahah. Thank you stick. thank you weather. thank you new zealand. thank you coffee. thank you legs for not giving up, sorry for putting you through so much pain.

Another feeling we had after finishing the track was....we want more of this!!! Kepler, you are next!!!
In a few years...

The last week in Omarama :)

So we finally finished work at the Heritage Gateway (to hell) Hotel. I topped the last shift off by accidentally opening a large bottle of champagne for a guest who only wanted a small bottle. The kitchen guys were happy though cos the rest of bottle got shared around! The boss on the other hand wasn't too happy. But WHO CARES! We were so happy when we were done that we even opened another bottle of champagne back at the house. This time just for us two. Then the flatmates returned home and decided to open more champagne. So much champagne! Everybody got pretty tipsy to say the least. We also had a ‘farewell house party’ to plan for the next night, so we made sure to sober up before bed. The next day felt amazing. FREEDOM! No more making beds, cleaning toilets, folding sheets, or carrying bags for little old Chinese ladies who seemingly didn’t leave anything at home. My back will never be the same again.

So we headed to the shop and bought loads of food, cakes and beers in preparation for the big night. Cecile even bought balloons! But we were to discover that they were actually water balloons (which were pretty fun after everyone had had a few drinks!). We got the house ready whilst I fired the barbeque up. Johanna made a chocolate cake and Cecile prepared the dance floor. Everyone came bit by bit and eventually everyone got drunk enough to dance and do the limbo! It was a great night. Everyone had fun. Can’t be better than that! It finished with us all chilling round the fire eating cheese and hummus. 

Gonna miss everyone in Omarama. It really was a job sent from the gods and gave us the ability to do everything we wanted to do. We were truly lucky to have lived in such a beautiful area. We will definitely come back to visit little Omarama in the future!