Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

It is Saturday 28th April and we have arrived in our "Go Milford" bus at the boat charter terminal in Milford Sound. Having enjoyed the trip up (down?) from Te Anau where the 2 hours went so quickly we were hoping that our trip on the sound would be as exciting. We needen't have worried. Might say here that we have cracked a stunning day. Yesterday as we drove over from Gore the weather was ordinary (dull) to say the least and tomorrow the forecast is for rain and deteriorating weather and possibly some snow, yet here we are in brilliant sunshine which looks like holding for the duration of our trip. Magic! So much has been written about Milford Sound that it is pointless to go on and on describing it and it's countless statistics ... read more

Jim from New Zealand Wild Escapes picked us up a bit before 7:30am, right on schedule. We then picked up two other tourists, Bruce and Nick from their hotel. Our destination for the day was Milford Sound. As the crow flies Milford Sound is only about 70km west of Queenstown, unfortunately there are no roads through the mountains so to get there we end up driving almost 300km. The first leg is south through the sheep and deer stations along the southern arm of Lake Wakatipu. We then turn west for a bit and at the town of Te Anau we turn back north through the Fiordlands National Park. Te Anau is a cute combination of farm town and backpacker & camper stop. We were able to stretch our legs there for a half hour or ... read more

The resolution to be more tolerant lasted less than 10 hours. Older German roomie decided to stamp her demands on me to shut the door one too many times and I snapped at her. She had asked me for a lift this morning to go to Doubtful Sound but she lucked out at this point. Also, as I'd find out later in the day, the irritated feelings were mutual, as she went and moved rooms for the second of her night's stay. While I'm on the subject of lifts, NZ is full of hitchhikers. Everyone does it - you drive along the road and there's a queue of folk, all wanting to scrounge a lift. It's like match.com for travellers - you can drive along, pick the best or most interesting looking soul, and you've got ... read more

December 30, 2011 by Craig Hello to our family and friends in Australia. I am with Mum and Dad, who have eschewed the hassle of Xmas in Sydney to join me on a 2 week trip around the South Island of NZ. The first thing to say is that it has been unusually warm and sunny here - everyday , in fact, since we arrived on Christmas Eve (even Milford Sound, which is normally brooding, cloudy and wet). We arrived in Christchurch the day after the recent double earthquake on Dec 23. But all was fine for us (I did feel two small aftershocks during the night, but that was all). The rubble and destruction of the Feb quake is still really evident. We wandered around the roped off "Red Zone" , peering into pubs and ... read more

25.12.2011 Morgens brachten wir Weihnachtsgrüße mit dem neumodische Klump (Skype) zu uns nach Hause ins Allgäu. Danach packten wir unsern Christbaum ein und fuhren los in Richtung Milford Sound. Die Fahrt war granate geil; es gab sehr viel zu sehen. 26.12.2011 Nach einer erholsamen Nacht in der Milford Londge starteten wir gegen 8Uhr gen Milford Sound. Dort angekommen suchten wir unser Schiff, mit welchem wir einen Milford Cruise machten…. Hier ergatterten wir ein super Schnäppchen, denn wir bezahlten nur 20$ statt dem Normalpreis von 75$. Der Milford Cruise war echt hammer. Wir sahen imposante Wasserfälle und Robben. Außerdem gab es für jeden Passagier einen Muffin für umme und so viel Kaffee, wie man nur trinken konnte… Anschließend fuhren wir wieder zurück zur Divide, wo Peter seinen zweiten Great Walk startete (Routeburn Track). Jona... read more