Queenstown Days

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Long, long, long day. 7 hour coach ride fom Queenstown to Milford Sound on the west coast. No straight way to get there. Lots of stops, but finally made it. Onto a boat that took us up the fjords and out into the Tasman Sea. Saw an albatross, some fur seals and a lot of waterfalls. It was really quite cold, so I contented myself with sitting indoors throughout most of the day. Did not help that I ended up with some strange allergies in Rotorua and I hqve been suffering with stuffiness and a nasty cough. Worse when I laugh. One of the other ladies said she had the same thing before she left home. Hope it disappears before my flights home. All we did when we got back to the hotel was go to bed. Yesterday was our last day in Queenstown. Had the morning off, so basically rested. Afternoon we got on amother coach and headed into the Aspiring Mountains National Forest. Had a great walk in the woods, even saw an Edith Ann sized chair. A lot of the gang sat in it and got pictures. Sure am glad a lot of these people are willing to share their pictures, my camera decided to die. So, anyway, after the walk we got back in the bus to drive over a dry river bed (runoff from winter snow will not happen for about three months), to where two large jet boats were floating in the river. Each boat held 16 people and a driver. they loaded us up with waterproof ponchos and life jackets and away we went flying up the river. The boats only need four inches of water to run, and did we get our money's worth. We went miles upstream between towering peaks, cascading waterfalls and through very shallow water. We stopped in a couple of tributaries to talk about the mountains and rivers then off again downstream back to the docks, through twists and turns that were 90 degree angles . When we hit deeper water he did a series of 360's for us. We all agreed this was the best trip we had ever been on. Made me miss my old jet boat a little, not that I could pull the stuff this guy did though. Left Queenstown this morning on out way up the coast to Franz Joseph Glacier. Stopped off for NZ fresh fruit, visited a winery. Took a walk through a northern rainforest and finally stopped for a picture break along the Tasman Sea. Landscape reminded me of Canyon Beach Or. Much rougher sea though, can understand why there were so mnyy shipwrecks. Not a people friendly ocean. Enough for tonight.

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