The past few days have been fun, yet interesting travel days. Weather is always a big factor when you travel and this trip has certainly been no exception. If you let it, the weather can beat you down and absolutely ruin a trip.

Over years of travel, I have learned that the only way to deal with bad weather when traveling is to be flexible and to adapt. You need to be willing to switch activities, shift agendas, and rework the logistics of your trip. I have some tips and tricks to build some flexibility into your trip agendas to allow you to be more flexible when traveling. I’ll write about this in the coming months.

As for this trip, we spent the last day-and-a-half trying to figure out whether we need to work around road closures for Milford Sound. Even in the event we do get to visit, we are trying to figure out what the weather will be like and if we’ll even be able to photograph it.

Turns out that the roads will be open, so we will be touring Milford Sound tomorrow, but we aren’t sure what the weather will be like. So, we will wait and see and adapt our plans as needed.

However, before we left Queenstown, there was one more thing we wanted to do. We had yet to do any hiking in Queenstown, so we decided to hike to the top of Queenstown Hill. We were told that it would take us about 45-minutes to complete and that it was more of a “walk” than a hike.

Let me tell you, this hike was certainly a hike and it takes much longer than 45-minutes to complete. It takes between 1.5-2 hours to reach the summit and come back down. And while it isn’t a technical hike and doesn’t require any scrambling, it is a steep accent in many places. Which is why I would have loved to have been prepared and been wearing my hiking boots instead of tennis shoes.

We did make it to the summit, and we were absolutely amazed by the views. The pictures I got will undoubtedly be some of my favorite pictures of the year.

When we were finished with the hike, we left Queenstown and were able to make the two-hour drive South to Te Anau with enough light left to take a walk by the lake and grab a bite to eat. Now off to bed as our Fiordland adventure begins in the morning!

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