Woke up super early today cos we have a cruise at Milford Sound to catch. The owner has opened up the garage so that we can leave our luggage there while we went North to Milford. We stopped at some places to take photos, roads get misty at some sections.
(Above 2 pictures by K)
Just before the tunnel, large patches of ice are found at the foot of the cliff. That’s how cold it can be. And we were still complaining about the sweltering heat we got while driving to Te Anau and at Te Anau itself. (South was having dryspell at that time while Nelson and North Island was lashed by heavy rain and flood).
Warning sign: Do not trespass!
We played with ice and once the traffic light turned green, we quickly got back to the car as it is our turn to cross the tunnel. It is pitch dark inside and since we were tailing some tour buses, their tail light was anything the but our source of direction.
Once we are out of the tunnel, we are quite near the jetty. There is a lovely boardwalk to the jetty as all cars must be parked 500m away from the jetty.
We made enquiry on the 3 hour Nature Cruise, which cost slightly more but the motel owner told us more worth it compared to the mere 1.5 hour Scenic Cruise.
Once we bought the ticket, we quickly went on board as the ship is sailing in 5 minutes time. There is a photographer taking pictures of people boarding the ship, you can buy them if you want to keep it as a souvenir.
Wind chill is killing, so cold. Mitre Peak and the waterfalls slowly appear one by one. Notice the same view under sunshine upon our return somewhere down this page, for contrast =P
Canoes:
The wind was so strong that the water from the mountain could not even flow down at the waterfall, was blown up by the wind instead. You can see the broken water stream in the photo. You can also see the video of the water stream being blown upwards in the following youtube link:
As you can see from the picture, the trees do not have their roots on the rocky cliff face. They are actually being supported or pulled by the trees above. So if the tree above give way, the whole domino will fall!
The scenic cruise in front of us:
We cruised along and finally making a turn at the sunny Tasman Sea, where few thousands km across would be Sdyney. Clear sky on Tasman Sea as opposed to the gloomy Milford Sound we came from.
The view of gloomy Milford Sound as I shoot the back of the ship:
As opposed to the sunny Tasman Sea 180 degrees straight ahead:
The captain set the sail up and cruise along Tasman Sea. The hills around Anita Bay grew at one of the fastest rate thanks to the techtonic plate movement.
We sailed back to the gloomy sound after we have enough sunshine at the open sea.
The little white dot in front is the same ship that was in front of us earlier. Since that ship was smaller and was probably a scenic cruise, they did not go to the sea.
We were treated to the baby seal colonies. The seals are seeking refuge in the sound to avoid the predators.
The ship needed a bath and we turned to the waterfall where the captain ordered those who prefer to remain dry to stand near the aft as the starboard side will get near to the waterfall.
After the baptism, we turned in to see if there are penguins at the Harrison Cove but to no avail.
I would say the scenery beats the three gorges in China as the cliffs are still high above the water, as opposed to the flooded gorge in Chang Jiang.
The sun has finally come out at the jetty side as well.
By now, we are all refreshed. Head straight to the car and went to a few scenic stopovers recommended by the owner.
The chasm is the first one. We managed to shoot a double rainbow at the chasm.
Second one is the Mirror Lake, renowned for its reflection of mountain in the morning. We went in the afternoon so…
We got back to Te Anau at 4pm. We went to a Chinese take away and ordered some food and ate outside the shop in blinding sunlight. I bought a cone of ice cream to keep myself chilled. Newspaper headline –Invercargill and the south is experiencing dry spell.
We went back to Birchwood and took our luggage and brace ourselves for the 3 hour drive back to Queenstown. Surprisingly, the drive back seems faster, probably cos everyone is laughing at each other stories and puzzles. A blink and we already at Frankton arm at 7pm. Went to Remarkables to stock up groceries again before we drove another 6km to Queenstown proper to find our apartment. Bought a tub of hokey pokey icecream!
It was a very steep drive up to Heritage Park Apartment. I almost thought the Camry could not do it with all the luggages but surprisingly it held UP. It is at the top of the hill as shown in this picture:
We were greeted by Aily’s son Valentine and he toured us the unit. My lucky number 14 and Valentine stays in 5, also my lucky number!
We were awed by the luxury accommodation that we only managed to book at very last minute when K finally confirmed his ticket. The apartment has 3 levels: living room, dining hall and kitchen are in the second level, washing machine, dryer and bed rooms are in the third level and all rooms have the lake view. The view is to die for. I took Queenstown photos at different times of the day every day and pasted them here for comparison. The whole Lake Wakatipu and the quaint township is within sight. The windows are placed such that you can watch TV while washing dishes, every mum’s dream.
We decided to leave the luggage at second level and not drag it up to the third floor. We were watching Alice in the Wonderland while eating a simple dinner we cooked ourselves. J, K and I decided to walk to town at 9pm. The sky is still quite bright at this time. New World supermarket is still opened, and according to Valentine, supermarket open till midnight. There are casinos in the town. The lake is pretty quiet in the evening. We saw an Indian restaurant Bombay Palace offering “all curry at $14 on Wed” and J said we should try it since Wed is coming. Queenstown is pretty much an adventure-adrenalin pumping town, the whole street is full of adventure shops.
We went back at around 1030pm, the walk back up was really tough to say the least.
Once we were home, another problem. If need to ventilate the toilet after business, one need to open window. But if open window, bugs will start to fly in. How??
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