New Zealand term of the day...
"Trundler" - a shopping cart!
The drive to Wanaka took us up through Mount Aspiring
National Park, a short stop at one point showing us the Fox glacier which is the
next door neighbor to Franz Josef. We began to see even more mountains dusted
in snow, the surrounding habitat looking more brown and harsh. Not unlike the landscapes of Eastern Oregon
actually.
We reached the town of Wanaka early in the afternoon and
Mom, Karen and I saluted our farewells to the Kiwi bus as we hopped the last bus out of Wanaka for the day to make our way towards Queenstown. We
saw some pretty spectacular views of the township valley along the way, our bus
driver being kind enough to stop and point out the historic village of
Arrowtown, constantly cloaked in the shadow of the mountains, and our final destination
of Queenstown in the distance.
We wound our way down and through the never ending
switchbacks we cringed at the idea of taking the giant tour bus through, and
landed in Queenstown central right as the last rays of the sun were dying
behind the mountains. We thanked our driver and made our way through the town,
stopping for a short trip into a camera shop to purchase another camera battery.
And I got the last one the shelf!
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| Yes, that is in fact a taxidermied sheep on skis. WHAT? |
We had our names in to the default Kiwi tour hostel of
Nomads, the hostel initially being unable to find us anything other than a 6
bedroom dorm which we weren’t too keen on taking. Fifteen minutes later as we
were researching alternative accommodation for the night they came up to us and said they could
convert another room to lodge us. Whoot!
Our bags housed comfortably in our room, it was finally
time to explore the much talked about adventure capital of New Zealand! We made
our way to Fergburger for dinner, the standing room only restaurant being on
the list of top 10 things to do in Queenstown.
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| As we were told when we were headed to Ferburger: "The line will be long, but don't let that put you off! It will be your turn before you know it." And by golly they were right! |
And I can see why! I think my
mom’s reaction about sums it up with her comment being along the lines of “the best
burger I have ever had.”
Our stroll around town to work off some of the massive
dinner we had just eaten took us into The Remarkable Sweets Shop, the side
street shop housing an assortment of candies from all over as well as a broad
assortment of fudge flavors. And
tastings were free! We all must have tried at least seven of them and finally felt obliged to purchase some of
our favorites to make up for all we had eaten in the tastings.
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| So much fudge to try! |
And then we were distracted again when we walked by a
chocolate and gelato shop (you just can never go wrong there!) and we had to
stop in to at least take a look. Karen
and I walked out with a double scoop ice cream to split and man do they give
you big portions! Geeze! The fact that we were already stuffed may have had
something to do with it but neither of us were able to finish it in the end…
The next day was an interesting one to be sure, the Kiwi
bus picking us up at 7:30am for our scheduled journey into the Milford Sound.
We passed by Lake Wakatipu on our way out of town, the giant lake being the
longest in New Zealand at 85 kilometers. Out on the plains we began to
experience the first of the days intense and adverse weather, the
borderline hurricane force winds and rain trying their hardest to blow the bus
off the road. I was legitimately a bit
worried there for a bit.
 |
| As the saying goes "Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning sailors take warning." I guess we should have known it wasn't going to end well when the skies shone red in the sunrise that morning! |
An hour and a half into our journey, we took a short stop
off at the town of Te Anau for a coffee and bathroom break and then it was up
and into the Fjordland National Park. Of
the fourteen national parks in New Zealand, Fjordland is the biggest, being
large enough to easily fit all the other thirteen inside of it. The road we took, the Milford Rd, is the only
road that takes you to Milford Sound, the famed 8th wonder of the world
and arguably the rainiest place on earth.
There have been some measurements as high as over 1 meter of rain in less
than 24 hours!
We crossed over The Divide, the southernmost
crossing of the Southern Alps, and passed by the affectionately named Lake
Gunn. It was named so after a young man
who years ago was the sole witness to a plane crash in the middle of nowhere
New Zealand and ran over 90 kilometers in under 20 hours to call for help.
Almost to Milfourd Sound, the
daylong torrential rain turning into pounding sleet, we passed through the long
road tunnel and came out into the accurately named Valley of a Thousand
Waterfalls. There must have been that
many at least! The hillsides were simply flowing with hundreds upon hundreds of
these streams, none of them apparently present during sunnier days. I guess that was a big plus to the
terrible weather!
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| The Valley of a Thousand Waterfalls |
We reached the Milford harbor by about 1:30 and our
driver ran in amongst the rain to pick us up our boarding passes. As it turns out though, for the first time in
our drivers 6 years of driving to the Sound the tours were canceled for the day. We wouldn’t have found out until we had
gotten there anyway but it was certainly disappointing to drive all the way for
the cruise and not get it! But I can certainly understand why; the winds in the
Sound at the time were upwards of 146 kph and increasing and the swell was
around 6 meters and rising. Yeah, I was ok with them canceling it. We did get to at least sit on the boat and eat our lunch though!
I like to call this the day I almost saw Milford Sound but hey, it leaves me something to come
back to J.
Despite the disappointment, I think my Moms day was made
complete on the drive back when we stopped at the tunnel crossing to wait for
other cars and what should be see but a couple Kea sitting on the roadside! The
only Alpine parrot, the Kea is found solely in the southern most parts of the
South of New Zealand. They used to be fairly endangered due mainly to over hunting but have since been put under strict protection, much to the chagrin of the New Zealand locals. Quite large parrots these birds
are one of the smartest around and are a massive pest, using their curiosity to wreck havoc wherever they go; especially to cars! Apparently car companies have stopped covering damage done by Keas as they will rip off windshield blades, pull up the trim around windows, and will even pop off hub caps! I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of one of those
birds that’s for sure.
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