Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 24

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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 14th 2007

So I have exchanged the luxury house for a tent, a car and thermals!! Feeling rather smug to have temporarly escaped the working life too, well for the next month anyway. First stop on the mighty tour of New Zealand was the magestic Milford Sound and thankfully it lived up to all the rave reviews ive heard. Its like some kind of mystical, magical land like no where else on earth. Ive never seen so many waterfalls and stunning rainbows. Dramatic snow peaked mountains towered above us on our cruise through the sounds. A baby fur seal lay basking in the sun posing for us. Our boat went under one of the giant falls whilst playing opera and Leila's mum danced and sang beneath the cold water with some other crazy people, It was a ... read more
Milford Sound
Milford Sound 1
Milford Sound waterfalls

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 12th 2007

After Mount Cook we headed to Dunedin stopping to look at the Moeraki Marbles on the way, the tide was in but we had fun getting our feet wet in the New Zealand sea for the first time - bloody freezing! Dunedin itself is a little city (they all are pretty small in New Zealand) of Scottish origins - not that remarkable, but with the most beautiful train station ever! Sadly, there are no passenger trains in most of New Zealand and the station's ticket office is deadly quiet, apparently the government sold the railway and the new private owners weren't making big bucks, so they just closed it down! Makes you glad for the struggling British network, sort of. Leaving Dunedin we stopped in a couple of small towns on route to the West ... read more
Dunedin Station
Forest Walk
Mushrooms

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 11th 2007

Not only church bells to wake us up on our check out day in Dunedin, but bagpipers too! Packed up and headed to the main house for our brekkie. One lady in there quietly reading who was later joined by her son. I struck up conversation and found out her son was in Uni at Aukland. Kerry asked if they were Canadian (I had thought so too) and she paused before answering. We both said later that we werent sure if she was embarassed or insulted by this assumption when she said American. She had read the weather from the paper and it looked like a real cold front was coming in. Loaded up the car and set off down H1 just in time for the rain to start. It was pouring out! Got behind a ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 11th 2007

url='/Videos/3022.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3022.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Milford Sound boat cruiseurl='/Videos/3023.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3023.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'birds eye view of southern alps and fiordlandurl='/Videos/3024.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3024.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'up close and personal with the ice Thursday morning we met at Ultimate Hikes headquarters and took a five hour bus ride to the Te Anau where we had lunch and then got on a boat that took us to the end of the lake where the start of the Milford track is. We got off the boat and walked about a mile to the first lodge- and when I say lodge I mean it. These places were so nice, dining area with a seating area. My mom and dad had their own room with their own hot shower. I slept in a bunk room wit... read more
the skipper of our vessle- captain Phil
the boat landing at the beginning of the track
about to start our Milford Track adventure

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 9th 2007

Hi team! Glad you all could make it. I've just arrived back into wonderful Queenstown after a most splendid week away in the southern most parts of the country. I had a good time. I was only gone one week, but it felt more like a month. First day we hit up Milford Sound, which is one of 13 sounds that makes up the Fiordland region of NZ, interesting I know. It's a nice place. The weather was a bit off on the cruise out to the Tasman Sea, but coming back in the wind settled down and the clouds cleared up a bit. Spent the night in Tuatapere and performed "Livin' La Vida Loca" on the karaoke stage. Honestly, it was terrible. I couldn't sing the chorus, but I had a good time. Next morning ... read more
The Sound
Shear it
The Chain

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 8th 2007

Sounds of Milford Australasia » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound By ChrisWhelanApril 8th 2007To cool our feet from all the treking we visited Milford sound the next day. It was again spectacular from start to finish. You could drink from the fresh waterfalls but filling your glass was a soaking. The town where we stayed was Te Anau. After checking it out friday night it was a ghost town so we reckoned saturday would be no different so we decided to head to the very south of New Zealand.......... read more
Milford Sound
Milford Sound
couple of orc spotted being chased here

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 6th 2007

Today has to be the best of all, as we were brave enough to go kayaking. There were 8 of us in the group and we set off at 8.30 am, so it was an early start and breakfast in our campervan. We had stayed overnight in the only site at Milford Sound. There isn't actually much there at all, apart from a visitor centre, lots of moorings for boats, a cruise ship terminal , and ........................ Oh, and of course hoards of tourists. We don't count, 'cos we are in a campervan, not on a bus like the Japanese. Anyway, we met our guide, a young lad called*****, who had trained to be a teacher, but then decided he wanted to work outdoors, so is getting outdoor qualifications. We told him to stick with ... read more
The Poser
Beauty
Lost?

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound April 4th 2007

WE've done a lot of driving since the last blog and Mount Cook. We hot-footed it down to Dunedin, where we visited museums and had the van repaired! Nothing serious, just no lights and electricity, so had to stay an extra half day while someone found the ghost in the machine. Dunedin is very small, like Durham, and on the day we stayed there was a cruise ship in port, an unusual event, so the place was packed out with people wanting trips to see the penguins etc. We went on a guided walk around the town, with a lady who was very enthusiastic and knowledgable and whose great-grandparents were some of the original settlers form Scotland. She talked for so long we mmissed our appointment to meet with James and Joanna who told us ... read more
Dunedin Railway station
Mirror Lake
Key summit

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound March 31st 2007

Milford Sound We wanted to do some tracking in Fiordland, part of the Routeburn and the Kepler track. But on the date we planned the tracks the weather would be very bad so we prosponed the dates and chose to do the Milford Sound trip, because this would be nice with rain because of the waterfalls. We left early from Te Anau and took the 9.30 boat trip. On the way to Milford sound there were already beautiful views on the fiords and mountains, but from the boat the view was the best. In the afternoon we decided to walk to Key Summit, which is the last part of the Routeburn track. Should be a nice half day track, but we only saw clouds.... too bad. Hopefully tomorrow better with the Kepler Track. Milford Sound ... read more
Milford sound boat trip
Milford sound boat trip
Milford sound boat trip

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound March 31st 2007

And then there were three! Chris's first full day in NZ and we made him get up at 5.30am...don't feel too sorry for him, he did go to bed at 8,00pm last night! Luckily casanova didn't come back last night so we all slept well! A long old coach journey again this morning. It felt really weird though as it's the first one where we haven't had to take our big backpacks with us so I felt like I'd forgotten something. Because of the mountains there are only certain routes you can take to get places so to get to Milford Sound we headed doen towards Te Anau. There isn't much there apart from glow worm caves and Lake Te Anau which is the second largest lake in NZ. The route from Te Anau to ... read more
The three of us at Lake Te Anau
The Mirror Lakes
The Mirror Lakes




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