Action and adventure in Queenstown
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2007
1
45
101
Trip End
Mar 16, 2008
Queenstown,
New Zealand
Thursday, August 9, 2007
We have spent the last few days in and around Queenstown which is the adventure capital of NZ. However we haven't been as adventurous as some....no bungy or sky diving!
Yesterday we took a day trip to Milford Sound in the spectacular Fiordlands. Milford Sound is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand, and rightly so due to the wonderful scenery. From Queenstown it is about a 4h bus ride, fortunately it was one of those wonderful crisp clear winter days when we set off and the views of the lakeside surrounding Queenstown were almost as good as the sound itself.
When we arrived in Milford it was starting to cloud over (this area receives around 6m of rain a year so it isn't that uncommon!), but the mist surrounding the mountains did little to spoil the views
jetboat
. We then set off on a 2h boat ride to explore the sound a little more closely, while we were out we saw the first arrivals of penguins and also some seals. As we rounded each corner there was always another stunning view making the long trip worthwhile!Today we headed off on a Dart River Safari which included jetboating (an early b-day present from my parents, jetboating fans!), unfortunately our careful planning of watching the weather (which said thursday was the best day of the week) came to nothing as it was raining. However the weather is no barrier no NZ adventure sports so we headed off anyway, after a nature walk learning all about NZ flora and fauna, and some history of the people that had lived in the area we headed off for the main attraction!
Luckily the boat had heated handrails so the more you held on the warmer you stayed. The ride was alot of fun, and by the end both Tom and I had very healthy looking rosy cheeks!
Tomorrow we head off for Dunedin (the most Scottish city in NZ).
I'll upload lots of pics soon, the computer in this hostel may well have been on the ark (However the hostel, the butterfli lodge is excellent in all other aspects esp Bridget the girl in charge who couldn't be more helpful).
Bye for now.
