Sat 26th Sept - Te Anau – Gateway to Milfod Sound!

On arriving in Te Anau, we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves at a lovely campsite on the shore of Lake Te Anau – and the sun was shining! Such a beautiful day!
First off, we booked ourselves onto a tour to Milford Sound. We would be picked up by coach the next morning at 8.30! Perfect. Our campsite is in a great location, on the lakefront (Te Anau Lake) and a 10 min walk from where the shops/restaurants are.

Milford Sound
Our guide Andrew collects us and we are happy to see we only have 5 other people on our tour! En route we stop at various points along the way as Andrew points out areas of interest. For example our first stop is at the starting point of the Milford Track (popular walking track where people set off on 3 or 5 day treks through the national park). Next we stop at “Mirror Lakes” , a 5 minute walk from the road – the calm lakes provide perfect reflections of the mountains that tower over them. We also encounter hidden waterfalls (Falls Creek) and gorges (The Chasm ) within the park. Stood on one of the lookout points we had our first encounter with a Kea! (The large forest parrots, an endangered species therefore protected in NZ) It’s such a bizarre experience to first drive through open countryside, then through a rainforest and then along winding roads with ice and snow on either side of you. As we near the Homer tunnel, Andrew explained that this area is a “no stopping” zone due to avalanche risks. (Nice basic logic. The longer you remain stationary, the more risk you are at...therefore keep going!) He also pointed out the remaining debris from recent avalanches – the sheer enormity of the debris is breathtaking ! Only a few days earlier we had seen in Dunedin that the road from Te Anau to Milford had been closed due to avalanche risk – the threat is very real! As we enter the tunnel we are met with a blanket of darkness – quiet an eerie journey and we are glad to see daylight at the other side. The hard labour that was required to dig the tunnel out is unimaginable. Our arrival at the departure gate gives us our first glimpse of Milford Sound – Its Huge!! We don’t have long to wait before our boat departs. Our guide on board gives a running commentary on the origins of the Sound (which in fact is a Fjord, not a sound). Its only when he points out a waterfall in the distance, that looks relatively close – but we learn is 3km away – that we begin to acknowledge the scale of the sound and its surroundings. We were very snap happy along the way – but feel like we just couldn’t completely capture the whole effect on camera! When we reached the end of the sound, our tour boat ventured into the Tasman Sea to give us a “taste of it” Well, thank god the taste only lasted about 15 mins. The waves were absolutely enormous, and our big tour boat soon began to be tossed around like a small toy in the sea. Each time we hit a wave and rose in the air, we dreaded the steep drop that followed and gripped onto our seats! Our thoughts turned to my cousin Fiona and husband Doug – and their experiences on the Skipper Round The World Boat race – We are in awe of you and your accomplishments! 15 mins of this was enough for us!

On our journey back in, we were excited to spot fur seals basking on the rocks - so so cute! And Also our boat being taken right to the base of one of the waterfalls. We got a bit of a soaking to say the least. Although it rained and was quite cloudy – the trip was phenomenal and we would definitely recommend it to others. Cruising across the sound you are definitely made to feel small and insignificant. Its the untouched beauty of it that takes your breath away.

On our return to Te Anau, we are presented with tickets to see a 30 mins documentary about the Sound at the local cinema - so we snapped those up. The video footage shot from the ground and also helicopters is amazing! It Shows the Sound in all the seasons. It’s great to see what lies above and around the fjords – We had thought the scale of everything was massive before, the film simply made us realise how much we had underestimated the landscape!

Our time at Milford and Te Anau was up...time to move onto the adventure capital of NZ!

28th Sept - Queenstown
As we drove through the neighbouring area of Frankton, our first impression of Queenstown was how small and compact the town centre was! With lots of shops/restaurants/bars and cafes crammed into a few intersecting streets – it was strange to be somewhere so bustling! After dropping off Rodney at a nearby campsite, we wandered into town to explore. As the sun shone brightly above us, we decided to indulge in ice creams from a fab cafe/chocolatier/ice cream parlour called Patagonia down by the harbour. We then spent the next 10 mins moving around eating them as the seagulls kept descending on us threatening to snatch them away!

As this is the adventure capital we decided we really needed to partake in something....and both our first choices was a trip on a Jetboat on the Shotover canyon! (ok not as daring as a bungy/canyon swing/sky dive – but its a start – plus we have plans for a skydive (hopefully?!) later on) So we book ourselves on for the next day.
As we were surrounded by so many yummy places to eat we decided to treat ourselves to a Mexican meal out and headed to Sombreros Mexican restaurant. Fantastic food! And the biggest selection you’ve ever seen of different spicy sauces to have with your nachos. The kiwi fruit spicey sauce was a fav! A drink at Monty’s Bar (after the native Monteiths Brewery) – and we were ready for sleep!

Day 2 – the jet boat fun. After a quick transfer by bus to the shotover canyon, we’re soon decked out with waterproofs and life jackets – then its all aboard! Our 20 min journey involves shooting up and down the canyon, in the jetboat, being taken stupidly close to the jagged canyon walls. With a few 360 degree spins thrown in for good measure...At the end of the trip we hoped to encounter some white water rafters at one end of the canyon – as apparently when they fall overboard it is like ten pin bowling with them...but unfortunately there are none in sight! All in all, great fun!

After our exhausting trip to the canyons, we’d certainly worked up an appetite – so we hit “Fergburger’s” in town. It always seemed to be heaving when we walked past....now we know why. Quite possibly the best burgers we have ever had (and anyone that knows us well – will know we have had ALOT of burgers) Plus, they even have a burger named “Sweet Julie” so they are definitely in my favour!

To try and work off the hefty lunch, we take a trip along to the beautiful Queenstown Gardens where Andy decides to partake in a round of Frisbee golf! ( I am still trying to recover from the stupidly big burger!) Lets just say...it takes a while to get the Frisbee going the right way – its allot harder than it looks and also not helped when you are following an obviously-plays-all-the-time-therefore-is-a-professional-frisbee-golfer around the course. Andys final conclusion is that HIS Frisbee was faulty, therefore THATS why it kept flying off in the wrong direction. Nevermind – good fun and another sport that can be ticked off the list

What better way to finish the day than a trip on the Skyline Gondola! Once you reach the top, the views of the Remarkables mountain range, and across the Lake Wakatipu to Cecil and the Walter Peaks are amazing! We were fortunate enough to have a beautiful clear day. We had hoped to be able to go on the Skyline Luge once we reached the top (racing on 800m track downhill through the trees, with the fantastic panoramic view to boot!) but unfortunately the last rides of the day were just leaving as we reached the top! We did manage to witness a number of people leaping off the AJ Hackett ledge bungy (a 47m fall, the only urban bungy in QT) We even started to seriously contemplate it....that is until our gondola ride back down. A young guy jumped...and we were shocked to see he seemed to be unconscious, dangling at the end of the rope?! That soon made our minds up for us! Bungy just isn’t for us!

The day was finished off perfectly with a few games of pool (by an open log fire in a great chalet style bar) and amazing pizzas at Winnies Restaurant.

Time for us to depart QT however we had one last “must see” (or rather “must do”) Blackberry and Blueberry pancakes at Vudu cafe as recommended by Becks – well, what can we say – they are DELICIOUS!! (and made a nice change from our daily ritual of porridge in Rodney!)

Heading north from QT we stopped off at Arrowtown, a former gold mining town, nestled beside the Arrow River. We were particularly keen to visit the old Chinese settlement, where migrant workers who had travelled over from china during the goldrush had set up home.

Buckingham Street s the main street running through the town – and has definitely retained its ‘oldy-worldy’ character. We wandered down to the stream where you could have a go at gold panning (for a small fee – we decided to resist – its not so tempting when you know there’s pretty much zero chance of finding any gold.) and somehow managed to stumble across a wedding photoshoot. We still have weddings pretty much at the forefront of our minds, so of course we were interested to see what this couple had in mind. Well, all we can say is....”Bizarre”. There’s nothing quite like watching 2 Japanese brides (yes 2, perhaps a joint wedding or something?!) trying to stumble across a running stream, in high heels, with wedding dresses hoiked up above their knees. (The grooms really didn’t do much to help!) Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre. Im sure they achieved some ‘unique’ wedding pics – we of course took a photo of them them being photographed as it really was quite comical to watch!

After grabbing some freshly made pasties from the local bakery to keep us going (amazing pasties! All the baking over here is just delicious!) we headed over to the settlement, which lies on the banks of the Bush Creek to the north of Arrowtown. Alongside all the huts/homes (by 1885 it consisted of about 10 huts, a banqueting hall and 2 stores) throughout the settlement there was alot of information explaining the conditions these migrant workers lived in and their reasons for migrating to NZ at this time. It was really fascinating but also quite sad to read about the hostile attitudes they faced (due to racial reasons). Life certainly wasn’t easy for them, but it would seem they did themselves proud and came to be well respected members of the community, with their contributions to the gold mining industry and cultural history. Arrowtown was definitely worthwhile visiting – it truly felt like stepping back in time.

We continued our journey onto Wanaka for a trip to the cinema....