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Published: December 11th 2009
Queenstown
Great little harbour. V Cool place.On a closer inspection of Queenstown we both decided it was a great place. The area was first settled in 1860, but the peace of the area was broken in 1862 when gold was discovered in the Shotover River. As to be expected, thousands of people then converged on the area in search of wealth. The Shotover River was the second highest gold bearing river in history second only to the Klondike River in Canada - a fascinating piece of information - and apparently yielded a record breaking 57.6kg in just one day. The wild town was bought by the Government in 1863 and after sorting it out a bit pronounced it ‘fit for a Queen’ and christened it Queenstown.
Although we could in no way be classed as the average adrenaline junkies who visit the town, it has lots to offer and we liked the laid back feel and friendliness of the ‘adventure capital of the world’. We were happy to spend our time here exploring the eclectic mix of shops, local bars and cafes, however, we soon found that nothing is cheap in Queenstown. Our base hostel for a few days was centrally located, but as we soon
Milford Road
Better than the view on the M25 realised it was also the main place for young adrenaline junkies, who, after an action packed day, wanted to party most of the night away as well and so our sleep over the next few evenings was sporadic. The first afternoon and evening in Queenstown we spent just walking the streets and were very impressed with the harbour side. We had heard conflicting reports from those who had been here and it was very much 50/50 as to who liked it and who didn’t, but we were with the former. It was very clean and safe and obviously great care is taken to keep it that way and even those out on hen and stag nights are controlled ensuring that no-one drinks outside of the pubs after 10.00 pm. It doesn’t seem to dampen the spirits though and everyone obliges.
On our first full day in Queenstown we hired a car with 3 friends we had met on ‘Magic’ and headed down to Milford Sound, Piopiotahi in Maori, which means ‘single thrush’. Milford Sound is 16km long, has an average depth of 330m, and is at the north end of the 14 fiords that make up the 1,200,000 ha
Motley Crew
Just a few friends from all over the planet travelling together. of the Fiordland National Park. Milford Sound is not actually a ‘sound’ but a glacial cut fiord and once the ice receded Milford Sound was flooded by the ocean. The intrepid sailor Captain Cook managed to miss Milford Sound not once, but twice, as he sailed along the fiordland coast - but apparently it is not that easy to find by sea! It was eventually discovered by a sealer called John Grono in 1823 who named it Milford Haven after his birthplace in Wales. Apparently Milford’s first settler was a humbug sort of chap - no not Chris - but a bloke called Donald Sutherland who built a 3 hut city. Marriage made him much happier - obviously - and after being thoroughly emasculated by his good lady he transformed the city by building Milford’s first hotel.
We set off at about 6.00 am to miss the tour bus traffic, with the sun blazing down from a cloudless sky, the day looked promising. It was a 600km return trip but along some of the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen so the journey was almost as much of a pleasure as the destination. We had booked our boat
trip on Cruize Milford, which was one of the smaller tour boats, and prepared ourselves by putting on lots of insect repellent and sun screen as the sand flies started attacking our delicious foreign flesh as soon as we got out of the car - we tried to kill a few as revenge, but the pesky little buggers just kept on coming. In all honesty this was probably the one thing that we both looked forward to more than anything else before we left Blighty, having seen pictures of how lovely it looked. But absolutely nothing could prepare us for its breathtaking beauty. Its epic proportions assault the senses and average words normally used to describe such beautiful scenery somehow seem inadequate and just not ‘large’ enough. The tour sailed passed the two permanent waterfalls in Milford, Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls, both spectacular, especially when the boat took us up close and personal to Stirling Falls, so we could all benefit from the ice cold glacial waters which feed it - bracing. One of the most spectacular sights in the sound is Mitre Peak, which is one of the tallest mountains in the world to rise directly from the
Milford Sound
Beautiful & huge. Those are pretty big boats dwarfed by the mountains. sea floor, and at an astounding height of 1692m it dominates the view. We sailed out to Dale Point, which marks the northern entrance into Milford Sound and beyond was the Tasman Sea. The whole outward journey was dominated, not only by a biting strong cold wind but by a sense of awe and majesty. On our return journey we were dwarfed as we sailed alongside Mt Kimberley, also known as Lion Mountain as it is supposed to resemble a crouching lion. Couldn’t see the resemblance myself, but at a grand height of 1302m who cares what it resembles. We passed Seal Rock and, right on cue, there were numerous NZ fur seals sunning themselves. We thought they were doing it especially for us, but apparently the rock is one of the few places where they can climb out of the water, so are nearly always there. We didn’t see dolphins, or whales, but we certainly didn’t mind. The photos cannot do justice to such an awesome natural spectacle, especially when you consider that this wondrous place was created some 600 million years ago as part of an extensive mountain range which was gradually eroded, shifted by tectonic plate movement,
reformed, cut away by glacial flow and then flooded by the ocean itself - truly magnificent and breathtaking. Our total insignificance compared to mother nature is obvious in a place like this and can be seen only too well as the tour boats are dwarfed by the towering mountains, ready to crush us like ants. Milford sound is apparently a finalist for the list of ‘must see’ places on Earth and in the top 3 most beautiful locations, we can’t say we disagree with either, if anyone has the chance don’t miss it.
All too soon and with much disappointment our boat trip ended and we had to make our way back to Queenstown. However, we did have the stunning scenery on the way back to reduce our disappointment and we managed to find a lovely spot for our lunch on some rocks under a snow capped mountain - hard life. After a quick game of snowballs, we headed back slowly, stopping at places en route to take even more photos of beautiful scenery. We eventually arrived back in Queenstown and to finish off a perfect day we decided to try out the World Famous Fergburger, even from our
Stirling Falls
A few seconds ago this was ice !! limited experience it was one of the best we have ever tasted. After a brief conversation with some locals who were interested in our adrenaline filled lives, we went to the pub to meet Latifa and Sonia. It was Latifa’s last night in Queenstown before she started to make the long journey back to France and we were all sorry to see her go.
The following day we took the hire car to Wanaka for a 3 hour hike up to the 775m summit of Rocky Mountain. Stuart Landsborough, a local businessman, created a walking track up Rocky Mountain in the 1990s at his own personal expense and this now falls within a conservation area. The climb to the top of the mountain proved extremely challenging at points and Lisa’s self-help mantra soon switched from ‘it will be a lovely view from the top’ to ‘just think how thin you’ll be after this climb’ to ‘you can do this, it wont kill you’ really quickly. The view from the top, however, proved worth the climb and we were lucky that the second day in a row we had lunch looking out over beautiful scenery - a panoramic view of
Topped
Not a bad spot for lunch Lake Wanaka and its two largest islands, Mou Waho and Mou Tapu, and the slightly higher Mount Aspiring. The trek down proved much easier, as it always does, and the drive back along empty winding mountain roads finished off the day perfectly for Chris as he displayed pretended he was Colin McRae.
Our last day in Queenstown was a chill day and time to catch up on some sleep (until 11.00 am). We aimlessly wandered around the streets, browsing in the shops and in the afternoon laid on the green in the sun whilst listening to a local band playing in the nearby pub. Earlier in the day we had taken a leisurely ride up the gondola in order that Chris could yet again demonstrate his driving skills on the death defying luge. Well it turned out to be slightly less than death defying and being forced to use the scenic track while 7 year olds whizzed past on the advanced track didn’t help the credibility at all. All in all a great time was had in the area and we would definitely love to come back again and do more of the fiordland. Queenstown has a lot to
Queenstown
The view from on high offer and although everyone considers it a haven for the adrenaline junkies it is much, much more than this, yep, we love it.
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