18 January 2025

I got up and had a shower, and had my breakfast before Pen woke up. As the hills were clear, I toyed with the idea of getting my camera, but it was a little past sunrise.

The sky, however, was overcast, so I packed my raincoat and strapped my jacket to the top of my bag.

And then we checked out and sat in the hotel’s lounge working on our blogs.

At 11.30 we picked up our gear and headed out.

It started spitting.

But we made it to the CBD without getting overly damp. It started spitting again as we walked down the road, but we made it to Fiordland Escapes. The instructions by the doorbell were to ring and then wait up to two minutes for someone to answer. It was about three minutes before a man rode up on a bicycle and let us in.

We’d chosen the “Blast from the Past” game. “Step back in time to when hardy men and their families braved the harsh Fiordland conditions, isolation and avalanches, to build the Milford Road.  Join the Homer tunnelling team, crack through the harsh environment and blast a hole through to the Milford Sound.” We were given clear instructions, especially about the different types of locks we were going to be facing – standard key lockes, combination locks with numbers and words, manual directional locks, and digital directional locks. (These were interesting as we hadn’t seen them before.)

After a little synopsis of our scenario – The Homer tunnel is nearly complete, but we have to watch out for the threats that could stop its completion and break through to the other side – we were let into the room. This was fairly bare, aside from a desk, a forge, and a work bench. The first thing to do was relatively easy, but then it got harder. Especially, as the lighting was low for atmosphere, and the only additional light we had was a flickering “kerosene lamp” (aka a fake with LEDs for the light), which made reading the numbers and letters on the combination locks difficult.

Once we’d worked our way out of that room – with a little help from the mysterious voice watching over us, we were faced with another room with crates of explosives and scientific equipment. We needed help a couple of times with this one. Firstly, the digital directional lock refused to play ball, and the mysterious voice actually had to come in and open it for us, and then we had some wooden pieces that we were interpreting as one big domino set and not several.

Finally, the last door dramatically slid back, revealing the walls of the tunnel. We had to unlock this last manual directional lock, step through, and then place the dynamite. When the last stick slid home, there was an explosion of light and the door to Milford Sound (aka the finish) opened.

We’d done it in 78.22 minutes, which wasn’t too bad for two people working on a game that you were supposed to complete in 60 minutes. The record, for a group, was 30 odd minutes.

We had our celebratory photo taken, and then left to offload our bags and get our lunch.

The bags were left in Kiwi Country, which is right alongside the bus stop, and we had lunch in Kea Café. I had chicken salad and, what sounds like an odd combination but was very yummy, a lemon and mint smoothie.

Then, because the rain was still threatening, we just did a circuit of the main street, stopping off at 4Square and then the Fresh Choice supermarket for sandwiches for tea tonight, and then returned to the Kea Café. I got my camera bag and typed up everything you’ve just read, and at 4.00pm got myself a banana and manuka honey slice and another, because it was so yummy, lemon and mint smoothie.

And we waited for 5.30 for the bus.

It’s now 11pm and I’m encased in a pod, writing this.

It was starting to rain heavily when we got on our bus at Te Anau, so we were more than lucky with the weather we enjoyed whilst we were there.

It was a good trip, although after I’d pointed out where the Kingston flyer was, Pen remarked that she was glad that she wasn’t driving as she wouldn’t have liked negotiating all the curves much. She would have been doing about ten kilometres per hour, tense, and then have spent the train trip contemplating the return journey.

And then, just now, I’ve checked my emails and there’s a reply from the i-SITE requesting that we call in to see them for advice.

We walked the short distance from where the bus stopped to Lylo and checked in – without too much bother from the digital check in service. Our room is on the bottom floor. Room seven, pods four and seven.

Yes, pods.

Because Queenstown didn’t have anything in the way of hotels that had twin rooms, or even, for that matter, any rooms available, our only option was hostelling or backpackers. I told you about this saga at the beginning, and how we changed to Lylo when in Auckland. Well, we’re here.

And it’s very odd.

The beds are comfortable, and private, which is better than where we were going to be sleeping, but I’m in the top bunk, which isn’t the easiest to work with. (Mine should have been the bottom bunk, but Pen’s knees can’t handle the climb) The kitchenette’s quite small and there’s nowhere to sit and eat. And, of course, it’s shared ablutions. Still, it’s only for two nights. (We’ll have the hang of it by then.)

So far, I’m not liking Queenstown, it’s noisy and crowded. But then it is a Saturday night, and we are in the backpackers’ district with lots of young people. We’ll see how we go tomorrow.

And what we’re doing.

Steps = 10,715

Kilometres = 7