Before we comment further, we encourage you to click on the panoramic photos to enlarge them so you can fully appreciate them.
We left Auckland on Wednesday, February 18 and hopped onto a Qantas Boeing 737 to fly down to Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. We were amazed to suddenly find ourselves flying over miles and miles of mountain ranges. As we got close to Queenstown, the airplane's captain announced that we would have to go into a holding pattern for 15 minutes before we could land at that airport. Thus, we were treated to a scenic flight of the area surrounding Queenstown that many pay big bucks to see as scenic airplane and helicopter flights are one of the major tourist attractions in the area.
As we arrived at Queenstown airport, we thought that we may have mistakenly arrived in Fredericton because there were no ramps to the various aircrafts for passengers to disembark. Instead, passengers used the aircraft's stairs to get off onto the runway (just like in Fredericton). Unfortunately, Lorraine was a bit embarrassed, as she had to be taken off the aircraft by a forklift. Yes, we did say that it was a FORKLIFT. And it had a clear box on the forks to hold the passenger which reminded us very much of the "cone of silence" from Get Smart. Great for Lorraine!
Weather was very fine when we arrived in Queenstown. We ate lunch at the airport then drove over to our new accommodations, the Alexis Motor Lodge and Apartments. In fact, the first panoramic shot in this section of the blog is of the Remarkable Mountains and was taken from the patio just a few steps outside our apartment door .The Alexis Motor Lodge and Apartments is family owned and operated by Carl and Jayne Kennedy. They have two children and live on the premises. Their brown lab, Molly, roams the grounds regularly and we have been surprised on a couple of occasions to find her in our apartment when we didn't quite close the door properly. She's very friendly and moves slowly. We thought she was an older dog until Carl told us she was only 3 years old. He claims that she is very fast when she is chasing things on the beach.
Queenstown is a beautiful town but definitely has a tourist thrust. There are many gift shops and restaurants in the business district and tons of hotels. It is located beside a large lake, Lake Wakatipu. More on Queenstown later.
Carl advised us, on arrival, that the weather was going to be turning bad a couple of days after our arrival. He suggested that we would be best to travel to Milford Sound the very next day since the weather forecast for that particular day was really good. We had picked up a Mazda 6 at the airport and were awaiting a Toyota Camry the next day so we were unsure about travelling that far since we didn't want to put too many miles on the Mazda 6 (avoiding filling out another contract). However, Hertz called us as Trevor was speaking with Carl and they had had a Toyota Camry returned unexpectedly. Thus, we were all set to go to Milford Sound the following day. As a side note, the Camry is much roomier and more comfortable for Lorraine. And this car was much peppier than the one we had on the North Island since it has Variable Valve Timing (for all you car connaisseurs).
The drive to Milford Sound took about four hours each way. There is really only one town at which to stop en route and that is the town of Te Anau which is located beside Lake Te Anau. Carl had warned us that whatever happened, we should be sure to leave Te Anau prior to 10:00 a.m or we would be following countless tour buses all the way to Milford Sound. The road is all two-lane highway with two-way traffic and there are no passing lanes anywhere. There is tons of scenery along the way but the road is very windy and gets more and more mountainous approaching Milford Sound. A few kilometres from Milford Sound, we drove through the Homer Tunnel, which is a one-way traffic underground tunnel through a sheer rock mountain. It was a very dramatic yet creepy experience to go through this tunnel.
Then, as we arrived at Milford Sound, we signed up for a boat tour. This is a World Heritage Site and a boat tour is something that MUST be done when in New Zealand. We chose a private operator, Cruize Milford, again on the advice of our hotel proprietor, Carl. He had suggested that a smaller boat operated by a private operator would give us a better experience. By taking Carl's advice, we saved $20 each and were on a boat with a nice small group of people rather than throngs of tourists from a tour bus. It was a fantastic tour and we travelled the entire 16 kilometres of Milford Sound all the way out to the Tasman Sea. There were fantastic waterfalls and other scenery along the way. We even stopped to view a lazy colony of seals sunning themselves on the rock as you will see pictured here.
Following our boat tour, we headed home to Queenstown, stopping in Te Anau to eat our picnic supper and arriving back at our hotel by 8:30 p.m. Just a fantastic day with just too much to describe! More to come from Queenstown.
Photos:1. Panoramic photo of the Remarkable Mountains taken from the patio outside our apartment door. This is what we see from our living room window.
2. Mountains of the South Island taken from airplane
3. The Hills Are Alive
4. Red Boat leaves wharf at Milford Sound
5. Panoramic view of Milford Sound
6. Re-entering Milford Sound from the Tasman Sea
7. Seal colony in Milford Sound
8. Mitre Peak in Milford Sound
9. Waterfall in the Sound
10. The Milford Adventurer, our tour boat
11. Lorraine at Milford Sound
12. The Homer Tunnel on the way home
13. Lorraine waves from the car while we're waiting for the traffic from the other direction to pass through the Homer Tunnel
14. A panoramic mountain scene on the way back to Queenstown
15. A panoramic view of the south branch of Lake Wakatipu en route to Queenstown
