Milford Sound - the new best scenery in the world for the Traxlers

Monday, Feb. 14 - Queenstown & Milford Sound
Today was the high point of the trip to date.  We were up bright and early to catch the tour bus at 6:35(!) to Milford Sound.  It is a 5 ½ hour trip by bus, but the last two hours were among the best drives ever.  The mountains in Fiordland National Park are strikingly beautiful and we passed alternately through rain forest and openings to see the mountains, including Mirror Lake with the reflections of the mountains.

On the road to Milford Sound:  Mountain peak reflected in Mirror Lake.

But that was only the prelude!  Boarding the Mitre Peak boat in Milford Sound, we were treated to the most amazing two hours of scenery I have ever experienced.  I rank it right up there with the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon as the times when all I could say was, “Wow!”  The Milford Sound is really a fiord carved by glaciers eons ago.  The mountains rise straight up to a height of over 5,000 feet up from the water. They are the highest mountains in the world to rise up from the ocean water. I’m including a couple pictures, but neither words nor pictures can convey the sense of awe and wonder I felt at these works of nature.

Mitre Peak at Milford Sound, rising 5,500 feet from the ocean.

I had decided when planning this day that we would fly back to Queenstown, for two reasons:  first, to avoid the 5 ½ hour trip back on the bus; but more importantly to see Milford Sound and the Southern Alps from the air.  We were not disappointed.  From the air we saw alpine lakes of incredibly blue water, with outlets cascading down the mountains as waterfalls.  These features of the landscape could only otherwise be seen by climbing the mountains.  More wows!

An alpine lake seen fromour plane at 6,500 feet.

With the extra time given to us by flying us back in 40 minutes, we were able to take a cruise on Lake Wakapitu on the TSS Earnslaw, an old steamer with all the parts of the engine visible.  It was a trip to yesteryear.  Would you believe it burns a ton of coal every hour?  (Yeah, not too green in this very ecology-conscious country!)

Beautiful Lake Wakapitu from the stern of the TSS Earnslaw.  Not the trail of smoke!

Dinner at Luciano’s capped a fantastic day.  As an aside, Queenstown is the farthest south we have been on the globe to date, 45 degrees latitude, halfway between the equator and the South Pole.

Tuesday, Feb. 15 - Queenstown to Franz Josef Glacier
From now until Friday we are in travel mode - a series of one night stands to get us back to Auckland for our flight to Sydney.  In the process we will see a lot of New Zealand that most tourists do not see, and today was a great first example.  Driving north from Queenstown, we stopped at a little town on Lake Wahai, as we knew there was very little civilization from there to our destination.  As our continuing good luck would have it, we stumbled upon a little motel/testaurant with an incredible view across the lake to the mountains beyond.  Also, I was introduced to “whitebait.”  I never thought I would be eating anything with “bait” in the name, but it was delicious!  Whitebait is a little (white) fish smaller than a sardine with no skeleton.  I liked it so much I had it again for supper at the end of the day!

Lake Wahai.  Wouldn't you like to wake up every morning and look out on this vista?

Then we traveled along more lakes and mountains of indescribable beauty until we reach the west coast, which until a few decades ago when a road was put through, was unreachable by any means except boat.  The mountains come down to the sea there and the foliage is so dense from all the rain they receive, would you believe 280 inches of rain a year on about 200 days?  How lucky can we be that the two days we have spent on the west coast so far have been sunny?

Knight's Point on the West Coast of South Island, a rain forest at the base of the mountains.

In the town of Franz Josef Glacier, guess what we walked two miles to see?  Correct, the Franz Josef Glacier!  Very impressive, and about the only place in the world where you can walk through a rain forest to see and touch a glacier!  Figuring we walked off about 600 calories each, we feasted back in town at Beeches Restaurant.  (The beech tree is the most common tree in New Zealand.)  I had the aforementioned whitebait again, while Karen had a steak sandwich.  Is she turning into a meat and potatoes person like her brother?  But to be fair, we shared our meals with each other, as we usually do.

James Eric and Karen Elise at the Franz Josef Glacier.

Guess what, folks?  I'm all caught up!  But now it's 1:30 in the morning!