Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Day 25 New Zealand - Milford Sound to Queenstown

Wednesday 18th March, 2015 - Awake to Milford Sound

In the morning, dig into a hearty breakfast before heading back out to the Tasman Sea (weather permitting) and exploring more of the fiord.



This morning following breakfast, there is further cruising before returning to the Milford Wharf for
your return transfer to Queenstown by coach.

It is still dark when we head up to breakfast at the same table and with the same dining companions as last night. Breakfast is hot and cold, with scrambled eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, and cereal.

As the lights dawns we head out but it definitely cold with a brisk wind as we head out to the Tasman Sea.





A member of the albatros family.




John spots some fur seals! These are much smaller than the ones we saw on Kangaroo Island in Australia. There are mainly young males.












At 9AM we are back on t he bus, same seats, same route.

Brent, our driver, stops and takes us on a fifteen minute walk through The Chasm.








Waiting in line at the Homer Tunnel that I wrote about yesterday.




Sheep dogs on their way to work.


Sunny countryside today instead of yesterday's rainy one.



Lunch stop in Te Anau, this time we go to the pie place.






Brent, our driver.



Looking around the shops.









We get back to the hotel and funny, our keys don't work. Bad feelings!! I go to the desk and ask to clerk to rekey them (great security - he never even asked who I was) i had also muttered that I figured they had screwed up the reservation. He just hands me the keys.

I go back and and lo and behold all our stuff is gone. I go ballistic and call the front desk and he says he'll look into it I asked if Ashley was there and was told he would call me back after he finished with another guest. After several more calls and the clerk telling me there was a miscommunication at the reservations desk and our stuff had been moved to another room, a hotel room. By now, I am absolutely livid. I explain, that no, we had upgraded with Ashley BECAUSE we did not want to move rooms. He keeps saying that he will bring me the keys for the other room. I state NO I am not moving I upgraded so we could be four nights in one place.
Long story short, Ashley comes up, very professional and asking how our trip went to Milford Sound. Polite conversation.
Then he says we must have crossed our wires because the upgrade was for two nights at $265. I said no, it was for four nights as we didn't want to move. This had all been part of my previous conversation with hikm, the point being we would be away overnight and therefore unable to check out and in again. Therefore I wanted four nights in one room. He agrees to let us stay in the room, won't charge us for the other two nights upgrade and goes himself to bring our luggage back including our leftover Indian food that was in the fridge!!
I would say I won the battle and I think he knew he had messed up.

Later in the evening I couldn't log onto the internet even though I had paid $40 for four days access. We called the desk and he said just sign up again and then would refund us.
So as not to keep you in suspense, we we checked out on the 20th we should have paid $265 for the initial upgrade and $40 for internet, our bill was $0. I think that might prove I was in the right...

ANYHOO



We go out for a stroll.











Stunning fall colours!


We stop in Pog Mahone's for a drink, well deserved after the Ashley fiasco. This is the proper spelling and it means kiss my ass!!



We had made reservations for Italian at Farelli's for dinner.

Whole baked lemon Sole w garlic potatoes, green leaves & lemon butter $28

Slow braised spaghetti bolognese w beef shoulder, parmesan & extra virgin olive oil $25


1 comment:

  1. The landscape is just incredible... I really like those shots from the boat.

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