27
That's how many hours we've been on a bus this weekend. 27 hours. That's even longer than we were on a plane to New Zealand!
Safe to say, we are a tad unenthusiastic about buses.

On the way to both Christchurch and Milford Sound we passed through and stopped at some places we had planned to visit if we had Rosie, such as Lake Tekapo, Otago, Te Anau and we dropped through a tiny part of beautiful Fiordland, where they filmed lots of scenes for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit because of it's amazing, untouched nature.

Our weekend in Queenstown has been less than we had hoped for, due to the rain following us here too.
We arrived around 5 o'clock on Friday and after checking in to what turned out to be Queenstowns party central, we shared a Hawaii pizza and walked around the city. Queenstown is just by the water and when the sky is clear, it's a really nice place to walk around in.

One thing we knew we wanted to do in Queenstown centre was visit Odyssey - the sensory maze. We went to the one in Auckland way back when and enjoyed it, and they had told us back then that there would be one opening in Queenstown, so we had to go!

It was great fun, bigger and better than its predecessor - its really different than any experience you can have indoors so any way I try to describe it won't do it justice, so best for us to explain in person if it ever comes up.

- - -

The following morning we got up early and went on a bus for 7 hours, with multiple stops along the way, to Milford Sound. Pretty much as soon as we got on the bus it started raining and that went on throughout the whole day.
Due to that we got to see tons of beautiful natural waterfalls along the way, but it was difficult to take pictures of them from the bus.
We also drove through Homer Tunnel, that went straight through a mountain!
When we finally got to Milford Sound and on the boat it was so rainy and foggy that we couldn't see a thing out on the water.
That was very disappointing after seeing so many beautiful pictures of it and travelling so far and paying quite a lot of money to see it.
The bus driver and other people told us that Milford Sound is even better when it's raining and that is probably true, but not when it's rainy AND foggy.
We realise you can't control the weather, but when it's that foggy that even the captain is saying that we unfortunately won't be able to see much, the fair thing to do would have been to give the people their money back and try and change their booking to another day.
The only chance you had to see anything was if you stepped outside of the boat, got a quick photo while trying not to fall overboard and get absolutely soaking wet from the rain and get back inside again.

So we left Milford Sound after our 1h 30 mins cruise feeling a bit upset.

- - -

Autumn is definitely here now and one thing that's been good with the bus rides through the country has been all the absolutely stunning views we've passed by and we've taken some really nice pictures of all the million colours of the trees, the hills, valleys, rivers, mountains...
We've seen where some of The Lord of the Rings movies was shot, like the "talking trees forest" and probably a lot of valleys they used where the orcs and Frodo and his crew are running around. But then again, pretty much anywhere you go on the South Island looks like a scene out of The Lord of the Rings and it's really amazing to see that it's actually real and just there. Nothing computerised or edited, it actually looks just like that.

It is a bit chillier down here on the South Island and summer is definitely gone now, but it's still not as cold as we expected it to be and you don't need anything warmer than a jumper and trousers. But if you are going to Franz Josef and the glaciers on the west coast you'd probably need winter clothes.

Despite the bad weather we've had during the last couple of weeks, we have been really lucky with the weather. Before Wellington we didn't have any rain at all and even though the rain has made us unable to see and do some things we would have like to, it could have been so much worse and all the incredibly magical places we have seen makes up for that over and over.

After the cruise yesterday and looking through some old pictures on our camera my disappointment over Milford Sound disappeared and I realise, again, how incredibly lucky we are to be here and to have had this amazing trip together. We have experienced some breathtakingly gorgeous sights that most people won't and that even the people who live in New Zealand never get to see and for that we feel so blessed.
It's so easy to take things for granted and to forget where you are and what's around you, every day, and just get hung up on the bad things like bad weather, rude people, wrong food orders, delays and queues, that you forget to live in the moment and appreciate it.
And it's not very difficult to live in the moment when you are travelling around in a place like this, with the love of your life next to you.

Love and Happy Easter!
Jenny and Dave