Things cant get much better than this?!!!!
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
1
143
209
Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Milford Sound,
New Zealand
Monday, December 18, 2006
We left Lake Wanaka and the rain was pouring out of the sky, we decided against the highly scenic road which takes you through the small village of Cadrona as the weather was so bad, and headed on the straighter slightly longer route via Cromwell. First stop was just outside of Queenstown - Kawarau Bridge - Home of the first bungy - we watched a few people jump and yes...I landed up dragging Matt away - This was just a rest stop en route to Te Anau, we shall be back in Queenstown for Christmas! The Bungy looked great though!
We stopped in Frankton which also is just outside of Queenstown at a small shopping centre and had a look around before heading further south to Te Anau.
Te Anau is a small town located on the shores of the Lake by the same name - Lakw Te Anau
Ali Kayaking on Milford Sound
. This is Fiordland, so as you can probably imagine the place is just totally stunning. On that day in Te Anau it did absolutley nothing but rain. We were planning a trip out to Milford Sound - one of New Zealands highlights and now we have been we can say definatly one of the highlights of our entire trip. Our plan was to head down just for the day, but by pure luck when we went in and enquired about the various trips we were left with so much information that we decided to sit down and have a think about it.....lucky we did....to cut a long story short, somebody else came in and booked an overnight trip on Milford Sound - because it was on a special offer. The next day we spent the afternoon driving out to Milford Sound, ready to board our overnight trip which as it was on offer ending up costing us half the price it should have and about 25dollars more than just a couple of hours on a day cruise!!The drive out was beautiful, and there are so many lookouts and spots to stop on the way its unreal, we stopped at lakes which mirrored the mountains and plants surrounding them, we stopped high up on the mountains looking out at snow caps and green hills, there were field upon field of Bluebells and just before Milford we drove in the pitch dark (lights on of course!) through the Homer Tunnel which is just over a kilometre long and through a mountain.
Dolphins Milford Sound
We soon boarded our boat at the wharf and found that not only had we saved a fortune on the fare, but that there were so few people on the boat, our quad share cabin turned into our own private double cabin! Imagine our delight when we sit at a table and eat a delicious soup, feel heat from the rads on board and look out at all of the beautiful scenery.Milford Sound is in the heart of Fiordland, its one of the most visited places in the whole country, the sound was carved out of a glacier many years ago and now as you cruise down on the calm waters you look all around you at pure beauty, granite mountains tower high up over the sound, some are snow capped, some have trees growing on them, there are spectacular waterfalls, one which last night we went right up to on the boat and got saturated! Another was smaller, and a rainbow ran along the bottom. We stopped just before the sound meets the Tasman Sea, if you keep going from here one way will take you eventually to Australia (its not as close as you think when you are on the otherside of the world! These countries are soooo different!) and in the other direction you would end up in Antarctica!
In Anita Bay Matt and I kayaked, it was amazing, and as Lonely Planet rightly quotes in its book "you realise how beautiful and how big everything is when you are sitting on the calm waters in a plastic shell"
Matt Kayaking on Milford Sound
!After Kayaking which was just amazing, we ate a delicious dinner on board. Soon we went to bed, that was after watching the sky change colour as the sun went down and the moonlight lighting the waters so that you had the most amazing reflection on the mountains.
This morning we were up bright and early, ate a cooked brekky! And enjoyed the scenery once again. This time we were even luckier as we saw seals basking on the rocks and dolphins swam along with the boat...........We are now back in Te Anau, and are deciding what we are going to do for a few days before we head up to Queenstown!
So, you know....just another shit day in New Zealand.....NOT!!
Hugs
Ali n Matt
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