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Published: July 30th 2004
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Milford Boat Cruise
Beautiful dramatic scenery - I struggle to fully appreciate the scale of the fiords - many peaks are over 1500m high! It was an early 6 o'clock in the morning start from Queenstown and when my alarm went off I could not remember why - possibly because of the whole tea-pot I drank last night without any help or the few hours sleep I had recieved but after a few minutes I came too and remembered that I was taking the most scenic tour in New Zealand to the Milford Sound
In preperation for the long winding roads to one of the most remote areas in the country and the 3hr boat cruise I took one of handy travel-sick pills - I am now blaming this substance on the reason why I missed most of the journey out to Milford and part of the cruise or it could have been I was exhausted from skiing but still went out and went to bed late. Yes... one of the most beautiful bus journeys in the world and I was asleep for most of it - including the 15minute short walk that all the passengers went on while I Milford Boat Cruise
Perfect U-shaped hanging valleys! was
sound asleep near the back of the bus!!!
At some points during the trip I did wake up and have a good look out of the window and I did get out and have a few Kodak moments at selected places along the way. During my trip to N.Z. I have been spoiled by the constant impressive scenery that the country has to offer. Possibly one of the most impressive picture postcard scenes that I have seen, was at one of these photo stops on the way to Milford. In Scotland we have many lochs but rarely is it calm enough to be able to see a perfect reflection of the scenery in the water, but here in N.Z. I have now witnessed this phenomenon on a number of occassions - but none so prominent as at Mirror Lakes. Unfortunately I do not have a wide enough camera lens to be able to fully capture this fantastic postcard scenery but I have done my best.
After a few hours on the bus we arrived at the Milford Sound warf for our cruise. This trip I have been really lucky with the amount of wildlife I have seen especially
Mirror Lakes
Completely calm days mean a perfect reflection can be seen in these [kettle] lakes. marine life - this cruise was to be no different and our boat was not alone in the deep cold water of the fiord. A small pod of dolphins swam over to play in the boat's wake and amuse the tourists. New Zealand fur seals tolerated our presence during their afternoon nap, sleepily looking up to see who was there until the beeping and purring of cameras finally ended. Sea annemones, black coral and a whole host of other plants and fish kept us intrigued and entertained while in the underwater observatory visiting their unique world, very rarely found in such shallow waters.
The cruise continued and I went mad taking pictures of U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys and waterfalls. Two out of every three days on average it rains in Milford but recently there has been little rain and the waterfalls were not as big but still spectacular, I was quite glad to have beautiful blue skies without a cloud in sight. The boat took us out to the Tasman Sea where it got quite choppy and then headed back down the fiord - the 14k trip took a while and inside the cabin it was warm and the gentle rocking sent me back to sleep again, but I awoke in time to take a few more photos and see the dolphins again before docking.
Everyone else on the trip was on a day tour, but I had organised to stay 2nights in this tiny hamlet so that I could kayak the next day - I was very jealous of the people who took advantage of the good weather and up-graded their tickets to take a scenic flight back to Queenstown - I vowed to do the same if the weather held out.
I was picked up and taken 2km out of town to a quaint little hostel that generates its own electric - unfortunately this means it is turned off at 11pm until 7.30am the next day. I decided that this would be a little retreat away from Queen(Party)town and declined the free shuttle to the village pub. I snuggled up in my bed at 9pm and amazingly fell asleep.
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patti
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memories!
Boy, does this bring back terrific memories for me. I spent 11 months in nz way back when! Took tons of pictures, but unfortunetly lost a dozen rolls of film before they were developed. Stayed in the bottle hotel in Queenstown...great town! Hitchhhiked all around nz. Visited every village, town and city on both islands. Made a lot of friends. The scenery was fantastic! Want to go back!!Worked in Wellington, Aukland and a few other places when money was running low. The people were so friendly and helpful. Not quite as friendly in Australia,but I did spend another 11 months there. Patti from B.C. Can.