Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 30

Hey there folks, Another week gone by in QTNZ, now been away for over 6 months and in Queenstown for exactly two months today. It has flown by. Just a hint of the plans for the future, I'm after some more adventures, lovely as new zealand is and i am having an amazing time here but it's all a bit too easy over here so plans are being made for somewhere warm and a bit more challenging...will keep you all updated! As i sit here now i am having a breather from cleaning my bosses kitchen, i do believe it is worse than any of my student kitchens, i never thought i'd be saying that. It's her last day today though so this is the last chance for free internet and slacker days before the new ... read more

The day started off overcast and very little had changed by the time I arrived down at the deep water jetty ready for a days Sea Kayaking. I ended up being in a boat with Eve - the guide. We paddled around the Sound (which is actually not a sound, but a Fi(j)ord) for around 18km - under the huge imposing cliffs and waterfalls, into rocky caves and around small deserted islands. The day never really improved weather wise, and overcast kept turning into raining and back again. I think this actually improved the experience though - Milford is dramatic in the sun but I think it is even more so, perhaps even a little forboding in the poorer weather. We were joined several times by a large seal which swam along beside the boat before ... read more

Hello everyone! It's another early morning and i'm back in work after a far too brief fling with being back on the road again. So the latest day off adventure......road trip to milford sound! As the geography grad i should note the main features of the area (just humour me) Milford Sound runs 15kms in from the Tasman Sea (the west coast) and is part of the fiordland national park; fiords being formed when sea water submerges the deep valleys cut by previous glacial action. Happily for us, and the tour companies, this means towering sheer rock faces cut with hundreds of waterfalls plunging dramatically into deep blue waters surrounded by lush green forests. Or, in Maori legend in the spirit of equality, the fiords were created not by glaciers but were cut by Tu Te ... read more

Wanaka was indeed the quiet option. A small town, seemingly reliant on the ski industry (no longer in season when I visited), Wanaka is small and largely uneventful. I stayed in a small, sparsely populated hostel, where most people were long-term worker-types. The scenery was beautiful, but in New Zealand, where there are countless places which can boast impressive natural surroundings, this is not enough to guarantee a successful tourist trade. I spent a few days in town, before deciding to move on to Queenstown. Queenstown is the self-stylised extreme/adventure capital of the world. It was without a doubt a tourist town, packed with bars, which were in turn packed with people determined to get as drunk as humanly possible. Queenstown is in-your-face and presents more opportunities to thrown caution to the wind (and possibly break ... read more

This photo was taken at Milford Sound, in New Zealand’s south island. This is hands down the most beautiful place I've ever visited. We were staying in a hostel that was like something from a horror movie. It consisted of log cabins in a forest and was powered by a generator that went off at 11pm. We were only there for two days, waiting for enough snow to get some snowboarding in a town called Wanaka, a few hours north. While we were there I got chatting to an Australian guy who had a really girly name, like Hillary or Lindsay. We talked the usual small-talk bullshit for some time before he asked me where I was from. I told him Scotland and he asked where. He had been in Scotland once. I said Fort ... read more