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Published: November 11th 2009
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Spectacular Milford Sound Bonjour
We arrived by plane in Queenstown (mid west coast of the south island) on Monday, after flying from Christchurch. The plane journey itself only took 50 minutes. Queenstown Airport is surrounded by mountains on pretty much all sides so it looked well cool coming in on the plane, like landing in the middle of the Alps!
We booked an apartment for 3 nights in Queenstown when we were in Oz, it was pretty cheap. When we arrived it was absolutely beautiful, like a modern flat with all the mod cons and it even has a washing machine and tumble dryer (so I can now was my shirts and don’t have to wear the same one all the time -IG!!!). Anne has been cooking the last 3 nights, she is loving it - so am I!
We hired a budget economy car, we got this crazy looking Mazda Demio, words are hard to explain how weird it looks (so I will post a photo) it is kinda like one of those old fashioned disabled persons vehicles and it is an automatic - aaaaahhhh!
On the first day we had a look at The Remarkables mountain range -
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Milford Sound at it's southern most point this is where Frodo and Co headed from Dimril Dale to Lothlorien. We didn’t go up as we didn’t have the time. We then drove to Glenorchy, which is a tiny mountain town, which is at the head of Lake Wakatipu, for lunch. The views heading here were awesome, we also went to the location where Saruman’s tower was digitally inserted.
We then headed to Arrowtown, which is an old gold town. It lies next to the Arrow River, which was used in The Fellowship of the Ring, the scene where Arwin and Frodo are fleeing across the Ford of Bruinen with the dark riders in pursuit! After this Anne was getting sick of LOTR spotting so we had some ice cream and headed back. Hobbits, always thinking of their bellies!
The second day we had a bit of a lie in, then headed to the Kawarau River, where they have the world’s first bungy jumping site. Anne was trying to talk me into doing it but I was too scared, it looked terrifying. The river was also used as a backdrop for River Anduin, pillars of the Kings were digitally enhanced on the gorge walls. After that
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Mirror Lake we went to Gibbston Valley Winery and Cheesery, where we sampled some wine (Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and we sampled a selection of their cheese. It was awesome, cheese is probably my favourite food in the world and wine is good too!!
We then headed to a place called Deer Park Heights, however it was closed down (which was a bit of a shame) it was suppose to be kind of like a safari park with bison, cattle, lamas and horses etc. I was pretty annoyed because it was supposed to have a half dozen Lord of The Rings sites too, boooooh! Anne was well and truly sick of the LOTR trekking, so prob best it was closed!
The next day we set off at 6.45, which was a shock to the system. We drove 4 hours to Milford Sound and took a ferry round the fiord. The views on the drive and boat were spectacular, on the ferry we also got to see more penguins and seals. On the way we stopped at the Mirror Lakes and Lake Gunn, we also passed through Homer Tunnel. Passing through the tunnel required a wait at traffic lights, and
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The road to Milford Sound you had to turn your head lights on. When we got to the ferry, I forgot to turn off the lights and when we got back the battery was flat. As it was an automatic we had to ask people for jump leads, luckily enough 2 French guys and a girl came to our aid - they were dead friendly and got us out of a tight spot - merci!
We managed to get back to Queenstown safe and sound, tomorrow we are heading up the west coast so should be motoring for another 7 hours. We are planning on picking up the disk with professional wedding photo from Wanaka so shouldn't be long till we post some good photos.
On the whole Queenstown is ab fab, New Zealand is definitely a home from home, we will definitely come back here again.
Hope all is well back hope, wedding photos to follow.
Love The Broons xxxx
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