Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 29

The drive to Milford Sound from Queenstown, takes around four hours which meant an early start to make the midday cruise. A quick oil check and a fill-up at the petrol station (there are very few opportunities once on the Milford road) and we were on our way. Although Milford Sound is the main event, the drive is just as if not more, spectacular. From Queenstownto Te Anau the road crosses the Dome-to-Dome region of tiny little hamlets, large dome-like hills (hence the name) and fields brimming with sheep and cattle. You drive past landscapes that take your breath away and then something that makes you laugh, like a house on a truck (honestly, it happened, see the pictures). This section of the drive is incredible for touring virgins like us but from Te Anau onwards ... read more

Milford Sound If you do not like the sound of the name ‘sound’ for an arm of the sea, you can call it by a few other names like inlet, estuary, channel, branch, strait. I checked on the Net. “The Oxford Pocket Thesaurus of Current English; 2006” says so. However, the New Zealand brochure uses the word “fjordland” to describe the area with arms of the sea extending in the land. But, then, why not call it a bay or a creek or a backwater? Yes, there is a reason for that. According to the definition, a ‘fjord’ is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes. Milford fjord fits the definition. Anyway, it sounds much better than Milford sound. The Maori word “Piopiotahi” sounds even better, but has limited circulation. With ... read more

Met up with Tom from Dougie's (Oz) and his 'friend' (ahem!) Kat from Paisley, Scotland who arrived in Queenstown on Tuesday nite. We decided to venture off to Milford Sound and Te Anau - a good drive from Queenstown. So Gordy, Emma, Emily, Tom and Kat set off on Thursday morning. Surprisingly enough, our 9 seater van was a wee bit squashed with all of us on board plus our massive backpacks and food/drink supply for 2 days!! Still, it was good to have 3 Weegies in the car! Drove to Te Anau - about 3 hours west of Queenstown. The scenery on the way was beautiful - but then that's hardly surprising for NZ! We had a nice lunch by the lake in Te Anau and then went for a good walk around it in ... read more

We had partied made new friends drank loads tried to scar the living daylights out of ourselves and watched England stumble out of the World Cup. It was time to leave Queenstown! Hopped back on the Stray Bus and headed for Milford Sound. Today was Georgina's birthday and the World Cup final only one of which we where celebrating. We bumped into a few friends made at the top of the South Island apparently on their 3rd loop, you meet all sorts. It took about 5 hours to get to Milford, we drove into Fiordland National Park. The landscapes where simply stunning, snow topped mountains split by wild grassy plains forests dotted all around set amongst the spectacular fjords. I took some of favourite NZ pictures here. If it wasn't for the bad weather I would ... read more

Stunning day, picked up at 6.30am in freezing cold dark Queenstown, and headed out towards the Milford Sound for a day out of town, first cool thing was just the scenery in the Fjordland National Park, those of you who have been will know what I'm talking about, easily the most dramatic I've seen (have I said that before?) Loved the Alpine Parrots (the Kea) they are big cheeky bastards who jump around looking for scraps and have no fear of humans, they look at you in a certain evil way that is only slightly chilling, gotta love them! The scenery just got better, and better, and better until we came across the much fabled Milford Sound (to be honest they need to rename it, something like "F**king Awesome Sound" no too far. We cruised on ... read more