Day four and I was wrecked before it started. There is no amount of coffee that can counterbalance that much tiredness. Another night of not sleeping. Lacey took a photo of us - after a couple of javas - at the start of our day. The bags under my eyes have bags of their own. You can barely tell I have eyeballs. As a good friend should, she offered to delete the photo. I suggested it be kept as a forever reminder to myself of exactly what my tired self can look like, because looking at it now, it's pretty hilarious.
Obviously, it will not be posted on this blog because it would frighten you.
Onward we went! Kinda. There was a problem at the start of the hike, but it is also not making it onto this blog. We all know that a blog post needs some mystery.
Fast forward a couple hours. We were making good time, which was important because we needed to be at the ferry pick up spot by 2pm. We were once again spoiled by some breathtaking scenery.
There was a lot of signing to be done. Lacey was shocked I didn't know Sound of Music tunes or anything by Blue Rodeo. I was shocked she didn't know the childhood classic, "Johhhhhhn, Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidtttt", but she thinks only German kids in Kitchener learn that song. Going to google that later.
She also belted out a song from her Girl Guide days. You know when you learn a song as a kid and you don't actually think about the words? And then for some reason you sing it as an adult and you're horrified by the lyrics coming out of your mouth? Well, that happened, and we both almost peed our pants from laughing so hard. Again, could have been the tiredness but it was another unforgettable Milford moment.
After correcting our lyrics to Wheat Kings and Lacey trying hard to make me remember a Blue Rodeo tune, the last shelter appeared. Yes. Lunch. Lunch. Lunch.
And since it was the last lunch we could eat all the food. YES.
Not that there was much left, but it seemed so exciting. I didn't feel awesome but devoured food anyway. I tried and continually failed to put my cutlery set back together; Lacey pointed out I had it backwards. Essentially, square peg, round hole. Too much for my brain to comprehend.
We had the final part of the hike ahead. Just one... last... stretch.
We made it to Sandfly Point, the one place in the forest with no sand flies!
Just kidding, that's where you can't get away from them. The park people built a fly shelter so hikers can hide out and not have their bodies eaten away while they wait for ferry rescue. I would have taken a picture but I don't think I remembered how to work a camera by this point.
That last kilometre was painful. Lacey and I have never moved so slow. It was like we were moving sideways and not forwards. I kept thinking ferns were sign posts marking the end, and trees were the shelter.
The hike was officially completed, all 53.5 kilometres. The weather was incredible and the landscapes were gorgeous. On the ferry, looking back at Milford Sound, I felt pretty thankful to have hiked somewhere so beautiful with such a great friend. The memories are endless!
And then we sat on a bus for five hours to get back to Queenstown. That's no easy feat after hiking, so Lacey and I fell out of the bus. The legs weren't working well! At least we stopped for some ice cream half way.
And then we waited an hour at Fergburger for massive, amazing burgers. The line up was long and I understood why once we got that food home.
Unfortunately, while waiting for the burgers, we saw The Students who had also made it back to Queenstown. They were showered and had on clean clothes. We said hello and tried to forget we still looked greasy and smelled bad.
You can't tell how giant that burger is, but it's the size of a small dinner plate. We cabbed home because we knew we couldn't climb the hill to our place, and our cab driver said we could have a free ride if we gave him a burger. We both snapped at him, told him we've been hiking and are starving so no, he can't have one. He turned the radio on and stopped talking to us.
A shower felt amazing after that trip. What I thought was a tan was actually filth; too bad.
Lace and I were both happy to be done hiking, but were so glad we did it. What an experience!
If you squint, you can see Mr. O fishing on the river bank, right side.
