Lovely lakes and stuff
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2006
1
22
53
Trip End
Mar 10, 2007
Queenstown,
South Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Anyway, Queenstown was great although I refused to do anything remotely dangerous despite it being the home of the bungy. I went up the gondola to the view over the town, and almost didn't do the luge (a taboggon on concrete), but noticed children of about 7 were doing it so thought it must be ok, which it was, although was snowing, so hands blue by the end of it, grumble, grumble.
I then visited a bird sanctuary (am justifying it as it is a bird sanctuary not a zoo, despite suspiciouslooking cages, though they were huge cages and breeding programmes are ongoing...) I got to see Kiwi's, wood pigeons, Kea's and red crown parakeets all of which are endangered, seems the introduced animals that don't nick all their food just hunt them down and kill them, bloody Europeans and their stupid interference in delicate ecosystems
HMS Milford Haven- Milford SOund
. Particularly horrified by story of introduction of the stoat, designed to cull the rabbit population (also introduced), that then went onto practically wipe out the Kiwi as its slower than the rabbit and easier to get! There was an excellent wildlife demonstration/talk, followed by a slightly dodgy bout of 'genuine' Maori dancing and singing, although as to whether the Maori's actually invented the Oki Koki I am somewhat skeptical and so refused to join in.Anyway the shared dorm turned out ok, everyone well behaved, although they forgot to tell me I had to swap rooms on the last day, so I was greeted by an angry Japanese woman, telling me to get out of her room, while I got equally angry and demanded to know where my stuff was (the YHA staff had locked it away). Anyway I moved to a (nicer) room for the last night and I ended up sharing with a girl that I'd caught the ferry with from the Wellington hostel. She was doing the anti-clockwise route as I left on the clockwise one from the Picton ferry terminal and basically her whole trip so far has been a nightmare; torrential rain, canceling most of the activities/views so bad that she almost went home early a couple of days ago. I had to fess up, as have had nothing but sunshine except for 1 day in Christchurch, even the day I got to Queenstown it stopped raining just as the lake was close to flooding, this also meant I had great waterfalls to view at Milford Sound because of all the rain the previous few days, but lots of sunshine to go with it...guess am just being very lucky with the weather, she did give me a bit of a glare though!!
me at milford sound
!Anyway there is quite a welsh connection to this area, Milford Sound (not a Sound but a Fjord, don't ask me the difference) was named after Milford Haven, by its first (welsh) settler, and Queenstown was founded by a guy caled Rees from HaverfordWest. Milford Sound by the way was great, I took the Bar-B-Q bus,in a small group, which I recommend as we stopped off for little walks and vista's like the mirror lakes, all along the way and then had a great trip on the Milford Haven boat around the Fjord/Sound before heading back. Absolutely spectacular views and glad I did it (even though it ate significantly into my Queenstown time.
Tried to upload photo's but....Computer says no
Will try somewhere else when I can.
