After talking with two different couples in Paihia, I decide to add Milford sound to my itinerary. Actually a fjord, (made by glaciers) the mtns literally appear to come up from the ocean. Maybe a little like the 3 river gorge is making the Yangtze River appear but with river water.?? I dunno. Haven't seen it face to face.
I arranged this trip the day I arrived in Queenstown withed front desk at the Black Sheep hostel.... I was picked up the next morning Friday at 7:15 AM by Miami and Alex on the BBQ Bus tour. Alex drove and die the interpretative discussion for the next 5 hours to the Sound. Miami did the same tour for the Japanese people on the bus with headsets. I learned a lot from the tour :
the pink triangles on the trees mean there is a stoat (an small pest mammal) trap nearby.
most of the roadkill we see is the nz possum. its not like the uS possum. more on this: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-new-zealand-possum.htm
the Te Anau lake we passed is the largest lake in the south island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Te_Anau
There are these native trees called Manuka which have a lot of natural antioxidants with used in tea: http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/ManukaTeaTree/ManukaTeaTree/en
They were used to reduce scurvy symptoms by Cook and other explorers.
We drove through the Fjordland National Park. Amazing! There are several treks a person can take here: the Kepler Track , Routeburn Track and Milford Track. You have to book these in advance. I'd like to do one of these next time around.
This tour bus company set up a little bbq lunch for us next to a river.. wE first west for a 30 minute walk down to Lake Gunn, the walk was full of dark green moss and opened up on a pristine clear lake undamaged by humans - perhaps on the other most beautiful natural scenes I've ever seen.
Clear. crystal.
I've thought a lot on this trip on how one could and people do, travel around for a year of continual summer. Why not?
At the Milford Sound, we got on a cruise boat for a 1.5 hour cruise. The immensity of the mtns became apparent when your boat is 4 feet from a sheer rock face - never seen anything like it. We went out the Tasman Sea and a dolphin family followed us back in. There were also seals basking on a rock and a waterfall we practically went right under.
The bus trip back they put on this movie The Worlds Fastest Indian, on my netflix list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Fastest_Indian
Check it out if you get a chance!
Went out dancing that nite at the World Cafe down in the main part of town. Found some liked minded dancers from New York, yay!
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