Queenstown - Milford Sound

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Monday 8th November

We leave Franz Josef and head South East for Queenstown but firstly we stop for morning tea at Lake Matheson often called the mirror lake. Its at the base of the Southern Alps which provides the lake with spectacular reflections.

While Jill was having breakfast at the cafe I did the 15 minute walk round to the Lake only to be a wee bit disappointed as it was a bit windy and cloudy so the mirror shot wasn’t as good as you could imagine it to be. Nevertheless it was a fine walk and I enjoyed the forest colours which are changing from spring to summer and also theres and there is lots of calming sounds of chirping and crowing as your stroll along the beaten path.

As we head inland away from the west coast via Makarora and the scenery changes from dense forest to vast plateaus as we enter the Central Otago region. We cut through the Alps from West to East and pass Lake Hawea which has some outstanding scenery and colourful water scenes.

Disco tells us a bit about the area and thanked Scotland for introducing the yellow Gauze bush which was imported over to act as boundries and fences for farmland. As we all know it cannot be tamed and now grows wildly all over New Zealand causing a nuisance and its the scourge of every New Zealander!

Our next stop shortly after here is a beautiful place called Wanaka which is on the edge of a pristine Alpine Lake, surrounded by the spectacular scenery of Mount Aspiring National Park. Disco has told us he has a house in Wanaka and he lives and works here in the winter doing bus runs up to the ski resorts.
There are 3 ski resorts around the hills around this sleepy village and you can tell its very busy in the winter as its very like Aviemore in some respects due to the high number of hiking shops and ski shops which line the main street.
There's lots to do in Lake Winaka such as hiking, sky diving, rock climbing, mountain biking and water sports to name some.
We stop in Wanaka for 30 minutes and wished we could have stayed here a few days. Many of our fellow passengers got off here for a few nights stop and we would’ve stayed had we more time in New Zealand but such is life.
We enjoy our 30 minutes basking in the glorious sun by Lake Wanaka watching the boats and swimmers diving off the pier. Before we left we took some photos from the pier and to our amazement we could count as many as 4 or 5 large Freshwater Salmon swimming below us, occasionally taking flies from the waters surface which was cool to watch. If only i had my fly rod with me!

Before we arrive at Queenstown we take a stop at the Kawarau Bridge, the home of bungy. The Kawarau Bridge, 43m above the river, and a Category I historic place, is the site of the world's first commercial bungy jumping operation. The river Kawarau was also featured as a setting for the 'Pillars of the Kings' in The Lord of the Rings movie.

As we approach the city of Queenstown we already see the gorgeous Mountain ranges called the Remarkables. Named so as they are in perfect line from north to south.
The houses perched up on the hills either side of us which lets you know you are approaching one of the most beautiful towns of New Zealand.
We checked into our hostel and for an extra ten pounds a night we upgraded our room to a deluxe private which has en suite and a large double bed....ahhh bliss.
We took a walk through town which was very relaxing as its very laid back here and has lots of European influence and feel about it. The Remarkables mountain range shadows us and they get better everytime you look at them as the sun is changing direction and the colours also change with it.

We walked to the gondola station and hopped aboard a sky gondola which would take us to the mountain top and the spectacular views of the Queenstown area.
Reaching the top of the gondola ride took about 15 minutes and once at the top we could see the panoramic views of the city and surrounding bays and lakes. Awesome views up here!! The Remarkabales have snow coverered peaks and they too have a few Ski resorts which are very popular in the winter.

We hung about with our Russian friend Elayna whom we started getting friendly with on the magic bus as she has been on the bus since the Ferry crossing. We take photos of each other and just stand and admire the views.

Later on we headed to Fergburger for dinner which is the Islands favourite burger bar as they have excellent homemade burgers which are gigantic and fresh tasting and for a reasonable price too!! I had a Lamby Lamby burger which obviously was a lamb burger which had salad and mint sauce through it..lovely!! Jill had a Cockadoddle doo burger which was Grilled chicken and herbs with salad which was equally special.

Full bellies and tired feet, we headed back to the hostel for a good nights kip as we have a massive day tomorrow. We are heading for the Famous Milford Sound in the North East of the Te Anau region.

Tuesday 9th November

Well, great sleeps all round as its fine not to be awoken by people snoring and farting in the middle of the night, and thats just Jill! 😊

We get picked up from a separate bus company called kiwi adventurer and set off on the long journey Westwards. By road, Milford Sound is 182 miles from Queenstown. In a straight line Queenstown is only 30 miles from Milford. As the terrain is so rugged, the only accessible way of getting to Milford Sound is to swing in a huge 200-mile loop down around Lake Wakatipu, back east to Te Anau, and up north through Fiordland National Park.

We drive through some beautiful scenic regions and pass by the Lakes Wakatipu and Te Anau which are both lovely to see. We stopped for morning tea by the lake and its quite blustery and the wind has a bite too it near the lakes.

We drive and stop in the Fiordland National Park. It is the largest of the 14 national parks in New Zealand, with an area of 12,500 km². They do say the journey to Milford can be just as nice as the Milford sounds themselves and its certainly proving it. From one of the plateaus within Fiordland National Park we could view Mount Aspiring to the far north and grab some great photos before moving off to stop at Eglinton Valley and the mirror lakes. At the mirror lakes you can see the reflecting pools which are amazing as you get nice mirror images of the mountains in the background. Eglinton Valley has obviously been formed by Glacier activity and the mountains tower up around us in all directions now, some with snow peaks and waterfalls streaming down from them. The rivers are raging here and we stop for a free refill of water from the calmer stream by the road and it sure tastes nice and fresh and you have no worries drinking this pure water!

We passed through more unspoiled mountain landscapes and pass through the southern Alps divide before entering the one way 1.2 km Homer Tunnel.
As we waited for our red light to turn green we noticed some funny looking birds outside which were sitting on roof's of cars and walking around people's feet. We got off for five minutes and took photo's of these birds called Kea's, which are mountain Parrots. The only Alpine parrots in the world apparently.
Kea's are known for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital to their survival in a harsh mountain environment. Kea can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective and already they are chancing their luck with peoples pack lunch boxes. Cute little things indeed.
There are large clumps of snow near the bases of the mountains which indicate massive avalanches have occured here during the harsh winter.
There's our green light and we must get on the bus and head through the dark Homer tunnel that cuts through the mountains to the East. Building the tunnel started in started 1935 and it was completed in 1954.

The long tunnel emerged out into rainforest carpeted canyons that descend eventually to the Milford sound. The winding mountain road is very prone to avalanches and closures during the winter half of the year and is not for the faint hearted as some of the passengers behind us were oohing and ahhing all the way down. There are many waterfalls lightly flowing down the steep sides of the mountains and thee water all meets to form the Cleddau River which cuts and flows through the valley out towards the sound.

Halfway down the valley we stopped at Chasm Gorge. The Chasm is a spot along the Cleddau River where the watercourse disappears between a narrow chasm. Here you get to look down at mostly strangely cut rocks and potholes resulting from the Cleddau River's forceful flow as it gets channeled into the dark and narrow abyss. The circular holes are cut by harder stones getting trapped in holes and being forced around and around by currents in a circular motion cutting into the softer rock which results in swiss cheese like formations.

When we arrive in Milford Sound we take a superb cruise on the Fiord, past thunderous waterfalls and hanging valleys. The first thing that grabs your attention is the impressive Mitre Peak which stands at nearly 1700 metres tall. We take it all in and even spot some Seals perched on the rocks beside us.

We board our Milford cruiser and the famous Mitre Peak is towering above us and you cant take your eyes off it. Milford Sound runs 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea at Dale Point - the mouth of the fiord - and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise 1,200 metres or more on either side.
To our right the large Lady Bowen Falls thunders down. The river Bowen that supplies this waterfall runs south for 8 km, before flowing from a hanging valley to become the 162 m Lady Bowen Falls.
We cruise all the way out to the mouth of the fiord to the Tasman sea, which took just over a hour.
Its actually more exciting here when it rains at there's 10 times as many waterfalls appearing from the high cliffs but we weren't bothered as the scenery is breathtaking in all respects.

The beauty of this landscape draws thousands of visitors each day, with between 550,000 and 1 million visitors in total per year. This makes the sound one of New Zealand's most-visited tourist spots, and also the most famous New Zealand tourist destination.

The trip is helped by the fact that you have viewing areas down below with large windows or if you want you can hang about outside on the large open deck up top. Tea and coffee is free and you can sit in the captains bridge and have a chat with him. I sat in the Bridge with Gene for a few minutes until we were alerted to the nearby Seal colony which were sitting on rocks nearby, time to go back up top! I got some photos of the seals posing on the rocks. This colony are the outcasts from the mail colony as its made up mostly of males that threaten the alpha male from the main colony. One more stop before we get to shore.
We stopped right under the Stirling waterfall which are a whopping 189 metres high. The boat, on purpose, was getting too close for comfort and most people on the deck got soaked, it was all good fun though and we grabbed some hot tea and drifted into the Dock before abandoning ship!

I recommend Milford Sound tour to anyone visiting New Zealand because it's sweet as! 😊

Well the bus journey home was the big Z's for both of us as we are worn out.
We get back to Queenstown and get freshened up and head out to the Marina area and we are glad we did as we are treated to some gorgeous Sunsets down in the bay and beyond. We sat here for about a hour drinking beers and watching the sun set like fire over the Mountains in the distance.
Once it got too dark we went to meet our Irish friends for a couple of beers. It didn't get out of hand as we were tired and the bellies were rumbling so we grabbed some food and headed home for the night like happy fluffy ducks! hehe, this Kiwi twang is creeping into my volcabulary no handy!

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Comments

[fred and sam]

Relentless progress
well that has been one hell of a trip, the Gondola ride looked a bit hairy, I'm a bit jittery with heights but I will have to face up it I suppose, do they tailor make some trips for old age farts I wonder? It never fails to amaze me that this wonderful planet is just not sufficient for some of mankind, that they still have the need to wreck and kill, this must be a life changing experience for you both, it all appears to be going so well, things will never be the same, I must say you are taking more seriously than a vacation, more a life lesson. Thanks for keeping in touch. As Aye, F & S E & O A