Advertisement
Published: January 20th 2010
We got in a couple days of big driving earlier this week and are now in the south part of the south island. Lots of sheep, lots of windy roads, no surprises there on the way down. We popped into see some glaciers on the way through, they are some
big chunks of ice. No worries about a lack of ice cubes when the power goes out there. I guess the same could be said back home though.
We checked out a bungy-jumping place the other day near Queenston (adrenaline sport capital of the world). Maybe the best $350 we never spent. It was the first commercial operation of its kind, you can get great views of the screaming victims as they plunge off the bridge into the river way below. It's your option whether or not to get your head dunked in. Count us out, can you imagine first free falling 120 feet, and then getting your head driven into a frothy river, and then getting rudely ripped back out of the water in reverse to bounce around for a while in the river gorge. We'd seen pictures before, as probably everybody has, but now we have a true
appreciation for how crazy it is.
We're now near Millford Sound, which, apparently, was mis-named, as technically it is a fiord, not a sound. But that's old news for all you geologists out there. The drive up to the Sound from here (Te Anau) is some of the most impressive scenery we've seen. Lots of great things to see, as evidenced by the multitude of vehicles pulling over every few hundred metres to snap photos of the Southern Alps.
We puffed our way up another excellent hike, Summit something or other, they're all starting to run together now. We ran into a cute old friendly hiker at the top who lectured us on all the geology and history of the region. It was my childhood all over again. Except maybe not the cute part. No offence, Dad Neave.
There is a a long tunnel (almost a mile) carved literally through one mountain toward the end of the drive to Milford Sound. It was super long and dark, with no apparent supporting structures and absolutely no lighting. It was pretty crazy, what with massive tour buses to be avoided in the 1.5 lane-wide passage. Those dwarves can't do anything
quite right, I guess. We did a scenic 'nature cruise' when we got to up to the fiord, and it was nice, but for the first time on our trip the cruise didn't really live up to the hype. The drive out there was spectacular though, it took us about six hours and most of the battery life of our camera to cover the 120 km up there. There is an ongoing 'discussion' about the number of photos we can ever possibly need to document our journey. Good thing they make more memory sticks, I guess.
Tomorrow we've off to Dunedin, to do some city things for a while. We didn't think it would ever happen, but we're a little Mother Nature'd out for now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.154s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 16; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0733s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Scotty
non-member comment
You Guys Rip
Facebook told me to get back in touch with you, imagine how jack I was to see you were in NZ, Wild. How long are you there for. I love the pics, I'm gonna keep checkin out your blog. keep up the good work. Take care Have fun Salama alekum from Kristy and Me