Campervan Day 9

This morning we decided it was best to get straight on the road out to Milford Sound since there were 15 recommended stops to make along the way, some with walks out into the woods a bit.  We stayed into our campsite until just about 10am (checkout time) and then fueled up along with what seemed like the rest of town to head out on Milford Road, since there was no petrol at all along the way or at the end.  We definitely got lucky with a nice sunny day to see all the amazing views and the tops of all of the towering peaks.  The theme for the day was definitely waterfalls, 1000s of the them, cascading down from 1000s of feet above, partly due to melting snow and partly to heavy rains from the day before.  The landscape was like a whole new world again, but still beautiful.  I’m sure the pictures won’t do it justice.  It’s hard to tell even being right next to the cliffs out on the water, just how massive they are.  Seeing other huge boats out on the sound up next to the waterfalls and cliffs did help to put it into perspective.  We passed a few seal colonies where the fur seals were lazing around on the rocks.  Then a few people got up close and personal with a huge waterfall.  We were all warned ahead of time, the doors were going to be locked and it was a choice we had to make whether we wanted to be on the inside or outside...he said that the outside areas would get on the damp side of wet for sure...I think some people wished they had chosen to head inside!  Those who had chosen to brave the spray quickly scurried around to the more shielded side of the boat but still ended up soaking!  We definitely made the right decision to head inside, except Dad, he stayed out and had a nice little sheltered corner on the driest side of the boat. 

I think the drive out there ended up taking us close to 4 hours with all our stops and picture-taking (it’s supposed to be 2 hours without stops).  Now we’re headed back to Queenstown to spend the night.  So first a 2 hour drive back to Te Anau (since there is only the one road to and from most places down here) and then just over a 2 hour drive up to Queenstown from there.  Poor Dad, the driving times seems to increase a lot on this half of the trip...doing a great job though!

Giant Pukeko in Te Anau

on the drive to Milford Sound

another stop-off on the drive

stop number...who knows!

there was still some huge chunks of snow left!

on the cruise in the Milford Sound

looks like I was photoshopped into this and someone then photoshopped new hair onto me!

one way tunnel on the way to Milford Sound

would have liked to see this in action!

lots of fenced in deer, there are NO wild ones!

sunset heading back to Queenstown

Campervan Day 8

Today we awoke in our “campsite”, a place on the side of the road by a small river just outside of Queenstown.  We drove into town, and since we were not on a main highway the road was extremely narrow, steep, and winding, not the most fun in a giant campervan!  It was a beautiful ride in because we got to look down on the city and lake from the surrounding mountains.  We made it safely, found a place to park for the day (usually we look for where the other campervans are) and headed into the center of town to the information center to sign up for some adventure activities!  We booked the Nevis Arc, the world’s highest swing!  It’s a 70m drop and then a 300m swing out over the canyon.  It was supposed to be a 1:20, but the winds were too high and they had a delay, which would have ruined our plans for staying in Te Anau tonight if we were too late so we switched the booking for the 4th, when we’ll be on our way back through town again.  We’re thinking of adding the Kawarau Bridge Bungy afterward (The World Home of Bungy established in 1988 by AJ Hackett) if there is time and a space for us (that’s just Dad and I of course, Mom plans on being a spectator).  

Instead we headed over to the gondola and took a ride up to the top of the mountain and had the buffet lunch at the top.  There was a bungy and swing at the top, called the Ledge, as well where we watched a few people drop from.  And there were luge tracks, which also seemed pretty popular!  We spent a couple more hours in the shops in the town center, purchasing some more souvenirs and other things and then it started to rain at about 5pm.  We decided that would be a good time start our drive to Te Anau, with a quick stop off in the McDonald’s car park (that’s how I was able to post the previous 3 entries). We arrived in Te Anau by 8:45pm and were thrilled to find free showers with no time limit at our campsite! Woohoo!  The town is gorgeous, situated right on the lake with beautiful mountains in the background.  Although pretty cloudy, Mom still found a way to take 109 “sunset” pictures...probably because her battery died earlier in the day and she was camera deprived for a few hours...

A fun fact I forgot to mention about yesterday...we saw 3 rainbows on our drive from Mt. Cook to Wanaka!

Home for the night on the side of the road

Queenstown and the gondola up the mountain

View of Queenstown from the gondola

Lake Te Anau

Sunset and geese on Lake Te Anau

Happy New Year! (Campervan Day 7)

We started this morning in Lake Tekapo with a pretty steep climb up Mt. John at 8:45am.  The views looking out over the lake and surrounding mountains were beautiful!  At the top there was the Astro Cafe which runs into the Earth and Sky Observatory at night.  We had some coffee and some banana loaf while admiring the views.  We were the first to sign the guestbook in 2011 and didn’t have to worry about the order the date was written!  We then walked the circuit around the top of the mountain to make sure we saw it from all angles.  Then we sat and waited for a bit for the clouds to lift so we could see a glimpse of snow-capped Mt. Cook in the distance (where we were headed today).  We met a woman up there while waiting who had just come from there the day before and she said the views on the drive were much nicer than anything we were seeing from up there!  So we took her advice and left immediately.  The walk (run for me) back down the mountain only took about 15min where the way up too 40!  This woman was right, the views were stunning driving around bright blue lake Pukaki seeing Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest peak) in the background with clear blue skies. 

The sun was shining making it nice and warm when we arrived in Mount Cook National Park.  We met our glacier kayaking guide and geared up to head out to Mueller Lake.  The wind was blowing pretty hard against our direction of travel so we were getting splashed a bit by 2 degrees Celsius water.  The views of the mountains were spectacular and we got to see the edge of Mueller glacier where it met the lake.  After paddling up the lake as far as we could go, we hopped out of the boats and walked to some other clear blue pools undisturbed by the flowing water.  There we watched the face of the mountain in front of us, seeing and hearing a couple of avalanches since it was such a warm day.  Tom (our guide) chipped us off our own samples of the 6000-10,000 year old ice!  We also sampled the pristine drinking water running into the lake we were paddling on.  It was nice and cold, crisp and delicious!  By the time we were paddling back to the shore we’d started on, almost all of the clouds had moved so we had great clear views of Mt. Cook and some of the other snowy mountain faces around us.  From there, we began our drive even farther south, stopping briefly in Twizel for some fuel, with the goal destination of Wanaka, but we’ll see where the road takes us!  No booking or plans of a place to sleep tonight.

Astro Cafe at Mt. John overlooking Lake Tekapo

Mt. Cook in the distance

Campervan Day 6

Today we started out with a plan from the day before.  We had purchased tickets to the International Arctic Center in Christchurch, where you can experience Antarctica.  We started with the little blue penguin feeding at 10:30.  They were pretty cute waddling and swimming around.  All are being rehabilitated or just cared for after injuries and will live there for the rest of their lives.  Some penguins haven’t mastered eating while swimming, so they wait until the feeding in the water is over with and wait to get fed on land.  There were a lot of different observation angles and you could even see them in their little bedrooms (of which they each have their own and go back to the same one) if they went to have a nap after eating.  We ended up with 94 penguin pictures after that attraction.  Some of the other attractions were a storm room, where you got bundled up (with a warm coat only) to go into.  It was -8 Celsius before the storm hit and brought a wind chill and then it was  FREEZING, not something you needed to experience for a very long time, especially with shorts on!  There was an ice slide inside which provided great entertainment watching kids go down too close together and knocking each other over again at the bottom.  This one little kid went down and while leaning forward getting readying to stand up, his larger father came flying down behind him and knocked him flat on his face again.  Poor kid...but it was pretty hilarious to watch.  We also went on a Hagglund ride to simulate what it would be like crossing the snow and ice including crevasses and steep inclines and declines as well as a lake crossing at the end.  The ride was in the actual vehicle, but on a dirt course setup out behind the center.  Another main attraction was a 4D tourist voyage to Antarctica via ship from South America.  You get up close and personal with the ocean, wildlife and glaciers, even splashed from a few.  Strangely enough, a large chunk of ice comes through the boat and it sinks, filling the roomm with bubbles at the end...then on the screen it says no lives were lost...but we never did resurface..hmm...we made a pit stop at Pak N Save to restock our grocery supply and are now on our way (about a 3 our drive) to Lake Tekapo, where we’ll spend New Years Eve under some of the darkest skies in New Zealand!

We arrived in Lake Tekapo just before 6pm and saw the sun shining on the blue lake with the mountains in the background.  The whole landscape is beautiful and the campsite it up on the hill so it overlooks the lake through the trees.  We walked around the the edge of the lake on our way back into “town” for dinner at Pepe’s.  We had some very yummy pizza!  Camping seems like a pretty popular activity for New Year’s since they are completely booked on all sites, and have sent overflow down to the gravel area by the lakeside!  Although, at 20 minutes to midnight there is not too much commotion!  Will most-likely be a quick happy new year and then off to bed!  Early morning tomorrow to hike up Mt. John before driving to Mt. Cook (NZ’s tallest) and doing some glacier sea kayaking. 

Fun fact about day 6....we hit the 1000km mark in our travels and Mom has taken her 1000th picture!