Fiordland

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Not a theme park, but the Fiordland national park, part of the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. (Called Te Wahipounamu in Maori, which means 'the place of greenstone'). I took a trip here out of Queenstown to visit Milford Sound. Most people do a crazy day trip which involves 4 hours on a coach there and back, so I decided to do it over a couple of days, and stayed overnight in Te Anau - not much going on there, it's a small place on the shores of Lake Te Anau, but I did walk around the lake and onto the start of the famous Kepler track - even if I don't end up doing any of NZs 'great walks' I'll at least be able to say I walked a bit of one of them! Te Anau is on the edge of the national park, and as I walked around the lake I could see misty views of huge mountains - I couldn't wait for the next day and the journey through to Milford. And I was right to be impatient, this drive was the most spectacular I have ever done - through valleys surrounded by towering mountains (think Lord of the Rings again!), past hanging glaciers, waterfalls and crystal clear blue rivers - and finally to Milford Sound, and the first view of Mitre Peak, which I guess must be one of the most photographed views in NZ.
I got on to the boat slightly apprehensively, as despite the cloudless blue sky the wind was getting up and there were whitecaps being whipped up on the fiord - I was standing on the top deck, at the front of the boat, and as we pulled out away from the dock the wind was so strong I could hardly breathe - but I wasn't to be deterred, I zipped up my goretex around my ears and hung on to my camera tight. I was captivated enough by the amazing scenery not to think about the part of the cruise where the boat heads out into the Tasman sea to loop around and turn back into the fiord, and as it turned out that wasn't too bad, even for a land-lubber like me. As I may have mentioned already, this journey around South Island is becoming ever more amazing. I would love to come back here and get to see more of the national park - Milford is the most touristed part, but despite that it is still stunning, so I can only imagine how awesome it must be to visit the more remote areas.

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Photos

Eglinton Valley
this and the next 2 photos....... driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound

Mitre Peak
view from the dock

Me on the boat
just to prove I really did go out to sea. Behind me is the entrance to the Sound - you can see how Captain Cook managed to miss it entirely :-)

Waterfall
Obviously. Travelblog makes me name all the photos....

another waterfall...
we sailed underneath this one :-)