Posted in a town called Te Anau, where the sun doesn't start to set until 9pm! I'm blogging this as I'm sitting lakefront on a quiet morning. Where to begin...the journey here! Things happen in threes, right? At SFO, I was held back because they had issues validating my passport. Of course what's crossing my mind is.. did I get busted for traveling to Cuba?! After a 20 minute or so wait, I'm on NZ flight 7! Don't ask but my apple earphones broke three hours into a 12 hour flight. I broke it in fashion, part of the jack was stuck in the plug so I couldn't even use the airline headphones..oh well watched Everest once with sound and twice without. Figured I knew what the dialogue was so at least I had visual entertainment- great film by the way- I recommend it! Lastly, boarded my connecting flight in Auckland to Queenstown.. was in my seat before getting ushered out of my seat and back to the gate.. turns out they gave me someone else's boarding pass! Look, if you're giving me a boarding pass, I'm getting on a plane! At last, landed in Queenstown and what a touristy jungle it is! One true sign of a tourist mecca: a Louis Vuitton shop. In Queenstown! Outside of traveling to Asia, I've yet to see as many of my peoples, Asians, as I have thus far in NZ. While Queenstown itself lacks a bit of character, IMHO, the scenery that surrounds it is stunning! The stunning cliffs! These cliffs will be the closest I get to a Lord Of the Rings Tour- this is where they filmed some of the Cliffs Of Mordor scenes. I left Queenstown after a day for a more quiet Te Anau. 
In Te Anau, I hopped on an obligatory cruise to Milford Sound. It was raining cats and dogs, or heaps as the Kiwis would say, but apparently this is Milford at its best as there is no soil in the mountains to absorb the rain so it creates thousands of waterfall. It is stunning! On the way back, I really wanted to trek Key Summit but the weather did not allow for the vistas one would see so it was skipped. It was raining so hard that none of us wanted to do any of the walks scheduled. Our guide Toni eventually made us, "this is a coach and walk, so let's walk, rain is not that bad." As buckets of rain drops hit her window shield.. to Toni's credit, the trails were beautiful! The epiphany I had for the day was that if it involves me and a boat, it will for sure rain. In Thailand, the cruise through the limestones, rain. In Vietnam, the cruise of Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bay, rain. And now, Milford, buckets of rain!
While Milford Sound was obligatory and stunning, my favorite had to be a one day hike I did the next day on the Milford Track. Our guide, Will, was a hilarious Kiwi. The weather was perfection- sunny and warm. The vistas was nothing short of breathtaking. We hiked about 12 miles and even filled our water bottles atop a waterfall. Talk about fresh spring water!
It's time for me to leave Te Anau. It took me three days to figure out my favorite pie is the seafood one from the corner pie shop. At $6NZ, it's the cheapest and tastiest meal in town!
Next up: a quick stop in Queenstown to meet up with Noreen and off to Wanaka we go!
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