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Published: January 26th 2009
We set out up the lake on the road to Milford, one of the world's top drives. This 120km road is the only way into and out of Milford Sound. Got going only to be quickly stopped by the local traffic, an entire herd of sheep crossing the road, well that's a new one! Carried on to the Mirror Lakes (where we got a perfect reflection of the surrounding mountains on the surface), across Knob's Flat (a plain in between the mountains), through Homer Tunnel (where we watched out for the naughty Keas, the only alpine parrot in the world, who have been known to pick the rubber off your car) and onto the Chasm (a dramatic waterfall thundering over smooth rocks before plunging to the valley floor).
Arrived at Milford to find a cruise terminal, one cafe/shop/i site/restaurant and nothing else. Wondering why we drove up a day early and determined not to spend the night at a local campsite we bumped our sailing up to the next hour and headed out on a cruise of the Sound. We happily snapped away as we cruised out to the Tasman sea and back passing underneath a waterfall (directly underneath!) and
marveling at the mountains that rose a dramatic 1,600 metres straight up from the water!
After our cruise we hopped back in the car and journeyed back the road we came on (via the fish and chip shop in Te Anau) destined for some place. We decided that some place would be a layby (which looked more like a campsite) on the banks of Lake Waikatipu. A beautiful spot. We skipped stones on the lake surface before bunking down for an abbreviated Lord of the Rings movie (after all we are in the neighbourhood!) and bed (in the car!).
Next morning we were up early and headed for Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world! Feeling none too risky we settled for the quiet life for our few days in town. Made some good friends, climbed up the mammoth hill behind the camp after refusing to take the gondala at $22 per person return, suffered for the decision of making the return walk down the steep hill and generally enjoyed the sweeping views of Queenstown on the lake.
Decided Paradise was the place for us and almost made it before a rainstorm decided otherwise (the creeks we
were driving through began to threaten the engine!) and had a very magical stop in the forest (covered in moss from the floor upwards) for a (you guessed it) Lord of the Rings set stop.
Headed for Deer Park Heights on our way out of town for more sweeping views and time to go back to our childhood and hand feed all manor of barnyard animals. For $20 (instead of the $150 the tour demanded) we drove ourselves around the park, stopping for a bucket of food, and fed donkeys, chickens, alpaca, llamas, red deer, goats, Himalayan thar and ponies. It was a fantastic experience! Ev happily took photos and revelled in the fact that he wasn't covered in animal spit by the end of the day. We reached the top of the park and the real reason for coming the amazing views over the lake and Queenstown, which were funnily enough used in LOR and the 80s movie, the Rescue. We finished our drive, now avoiding the goats (bullies!) and set off down the hill and out of town.
Being in the home of bungy and not fancying another go we made our way to the home
of AJ Hackett (the inventor!) and the bridge at Kawarau where he first made this crazy invention available to the public. We watched for hours as the assembly line of people paid to throw themselves off the 43 metres bridge (peanuts compared to my 111 metre jump!)with only an occasional scream. After having our fill and learning more about the history of bungy, we continued our drive along the powder blue river to Lake Dunstan where we made (car) camp for another night. The foreboding clouds rolled down the mountains toward us just before the howling wind and rain began. Not a very restful night. Up the next day headed to Wanaka.
We stopped at Puzzling World on the way into town. A curious place complete with holograms, a room filled with faces of famous people who follow you wherever you go, a room of size distortion, a tilted room (a 15 degree tilt) and a massive maze that takes about an hour to get through. After enjoying our puzzling time we headed into town. A "must do stop" according to Lonely Planet is Paradiso Cinema. This cinema consists of a single room filled with couchs, lounge chairs and
a Morris Minor car (just in case you feel like experiencing a drive in movie inside) run by a man who loves film. We booked in to watch "Australia" and anxiously awaited intermission where they offer you fresh baked, hot out of the oven, massive chocolate chip cookies! Yum!
Drove into town to realize that the "Challenge" was on. This one day race is an ironman, meaning that in a single day competitors must complete a 3.8km swim, 180 km bike ride and end with a 42.2km marathon. The winner completed this entire feat in just under 8 hours and 30 minutes. Insane! The last competitors to complete were three 70 plus year old men who came across the finish line at midnight after 17 hours (just in time for the fireworks).
From Wanaka headed over the Haast Pass bound for the coast.
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jamie
non-member comment
ha!
loved the animal pictures this time around... lol!