Trip Report - Honeymoon in Australia and New Zealand
Oct 29th, 2007, 07:34 AM
#21
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Last Day in Australia
For our last day in Melbourne, we had yet another tour scheduled with Australian Wild Escapes. We did the “Penguins, Koalas and Wildlife Ecotour” tour, which was scheduled to pick us up at 1:00 PM. Since we had all morning free, we decided to do a little exploring of Melbourne.
Our exploring consisted of exploring the market. I believe it was the Victoria Market, an open air market with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. There is also an indoor portion with meats, delis, etc. We had a good shopping time, although we ran out of cash. We weren’t sure how to deal with that, since we were leaving for NZ the next day and didn’t really need many Australian dollars. We did need some though, so we decided to just get a few. The task was more difficult than we thought, though. All of the ATM’s were out of cash! We went to five before we found one with cash. Thankfully, we were able to find that one that still had money and get a few more dollars out.
We used credit cards as much as possible, but most of the vendors did not take credit cards, or charged a fee. We just saw the shopping as an opportunity to use all of those dollars we had! We bought about everything else we needed for various friends and family members, and then decided to eat a quick lunch. We bought Polish Sausages in the market. Mmmmm. I had mine with sauerkraut (the ONLY way to eat a Polish Sausage) and DH had his with peppers and onions. They were delicious, but not quite satisfying. I convinced DH to buy me an apricot pastry and that did the trick. We had had a great Saturday morning shopping and were ready to head back for our tour!
We arrived at the hotel with just enough time to grab our coats and hats and be in the lobby for pickup. Our tour guide for this tour was Bruce, and he was great. There were five others on the tour, a family of three from Vancouver, a couple from Seattle, and us. The main attraction of the tour is seeing the penguin parade on Phillips Island.
The first stop of the tour was at a working farm on Churchill Island outside of Melbourne. We had a great afternoon tea there in their cafe. We walked the grounds of the farm, seeing various farm animals. The had some cattle from Scotland which was interesting. They were hairy creatures!!
After the farm we made a quick stop at a surfing beach. I wish I remember the name, but I don’t. Since I love big waves in the ocean, this was a fun stop. We stood on the beach for a while, amazed at the sounds and sites of the waves crashing on the beach.
Since we were on a tour, our time was limited. We moved on to our next stop, which was the Koala Conservation Center. This Center really is a great place to visit if you want to see Koalas close up. There is an elevated boardwalk that goes through the trees, allowing you to be within feet of the (mostly sleeping) marsupials. Did you know that Koalas sleep about 20 – 22 hours a day? The rest of the time they eat. Now that’s my kind of animal! Haha I was surprised to find that out, but it makes sense when you realize that all they eat ever is Eucalyptus. If that’s all I ate, I think I would have to sleep 20 hours a day also. We spent quite a while with the Koalas. We didn’t feel rushed at all, which was nice. I’m used to filling herded while on tours, but Australian Wild Escapes does such a good job that I rarely felt rushed on their tours.
The next stop was the penguin parade! We drove to the area where the parade is. On our way, we stopped a few times to overlook the beautiful rocky shoreline. This area is so gorgeous. I love seeing the rough seaside and watching the powerful forces of water.
We arrived a little early and made our way down to the viewing area where we could see the penguins. This penguin parade is basically an area of beach where penguins “land” every night to visit their land burrow. The stay on land for a few days and then return to the ocean for weeks. I think they said there were about 400 penguins on the beach the night we were there. They land in waves. There were four or five groups that landed right in front of us and waddled across the beach and out to the countryside. Each group had maybe 30 – 40 penguins? I’m not sure exactly. There were many different landing spots across the beach. We were off to the side at a viewing area away from the main one. The one where we were was smaller with fewer people. It also had a long boardwalk back to the center where you could stand and look down at the penguins running right underneath the walk. It was really an amazing experience. The penguins were so cute! They were smaller than I was expecting, but then again, they were Little Blue Penguins, which are one of the smallest species of penguins.
After our experience with the penguins, we drove into town to a delicious dinner at a comfy restaurant. They had kangaroo on the menu, and DH was dying to try some. He really didn’t want a whole plate full, though, so they were kind enough to grill just a little for him in addition to his steak so that he could taste it. Neither one of us was impressed with the kangaroo. I’m not into eating rare meat, and apparently that is how it is served.
We had a great dinner and then settled in to our long drive back to our hotel in Melbourne. I think everyone fell asleep…it was about 9:00 by the time we started back. It had been a long fun day.
I have to say, Bruce was an excellent guide. We learned a lot, and felt more like we were hanging out with an expert than on a guided tour. He was also very considerate. When we arrived at our hotel, I was sleeping. So, we quickly woke up, exited the van, and tipped Bruce. After we got up to our room, I realized that I had left my hat (which had sentimental value) in the van. We considered it lost forever….until we checked out the next morning. Bruce had come back to the hotel after dropping off the other passengers and left the hat at the desk. I was very appreciative. It was really late and he did not have to do that.
We returned to our room ready for some sleep, especially since we were leaving for New Zealand early the next morning. It was sad leaving Australia. We thoroughly enjoyed every day there and look forward to our next visit.
For our last day in Melbourne, we had yet another tour scheduled with Australian Wild Escapes. We did the “Penguins, Koalas and Wildlife Ecotour” tour, which was scheduled to pick us up at 1:00 PM. Since we had all morning free, we decided to do a little exploring of Melbourne.
Our exploring consisted of exploring the market. I believe it was the Victoria Market, an open air market with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. There is also an indoor portion with meats, delis, etc. We had a good shopping time, although we ran out of cash. We weren’t sure how to deal with that, since we were leaving for NZ the next day and didn’t really need many Australian dollars. We did need some though, so we decided to just get a few. The task was more difficult than we thought, though. All of the ATM’s were out of cash! We went to five before we found one with cash. Thankfully, we were able to find that one that still had money and get a few more dollars out.
We used credit cards as much as possible, but most of the vendors did not take credit cards, or charged a fee. We just saw the shopping as an opportunity to use all of those dollars we had! We bought about everything else we needed for various friends and family members, and then decided to eat a quick lunch. We bought Polish Sausages in the market. Mmmmm. I had mine with sauerkraut (the ONLY way to eat a Polish Sausage) and DH had his with peppers and onions. They were delicious, but not quite satisfying. I convinced DH to buy me an apricot pastry and that did the trick. We had had a great Saturday morning shopping and were ready to head back for our tour!
We arrived at the hotel with just enough time to grab our coats and hats and be in the lobby for pickup. Our tour guide for this tour was Bruce, and he was great. There were five others on the tour, a family of three from Vancouver, a couple from Seattle, and us. The main attraction of the tour is seeing the penguin parade on Phillips Island.
The first stop of the tour was at a working farm on Churchill Island outside of Melbourne. We had a great afternoon tea there in their cafe. We walked the grounds of the farm, seeing various farm animals. The had some cattle from Scotland which was interesting. They were hairy creatures!!
After the farm we made a quick stop at a surfing beach. I wish I remember the name, but I don’t. Since I love big waves in the ocean, this was a fun stop. We stood on the beach for a while, amazed at the sounds and sites of the waves crashing on the beach.
Since we were on a tour, our time was limited. We moved on to our next stop, which was the Koala Conservation Center. This Center really is a great place to visit if you want to see Koalas close up. There is an elevated boardwalk that goes through the trees, allowing you to be within feet of the (mostly sleeping) marsupials. Did you know that Koalas sleep about 20 – 22 hours a day? The rest of the time they eat. Now that’s my kind of animal! Haha I was surprised to find that out, but it makes sense when you realize that all they eat ever is Eucalyptus. If that’s all I ate, I think I would have to sleep 20 hours a day also. We spent quite a while with the Koalas. We didn’t feel rushed at all, which was nice. I’m used to filling herded while on tours, but Australian Wild Escapes does such a good job that I rarely felt rushed on their tours.
The next stop was the penguin parade! We drove to the area where the parade is. On our way, we stopped a few times to overlook the beautiful rocky shoreline. This area is so gorgeous. I love seeing the rough seaside and watching the powerful forces of water.
We arrived a little early and made our way down to the viewing area where we could see the penguins. This penguin parade is basically an area of beach where penguins “land” every night to visit their land burrow. The stay on land for a few days and then return to the ocean for weeks. I think they said there were about 400 penguins on the beach the night we were there. They land in waves. There were four or five groups that landed right in front of us and waddled across the beach and out to the countryside. Each group had maybe 30 – 40 penguins? I’m not sure exactly. There were many different landing spots across the beach. We were off to the side at a viewing area away from the main one. The one where we were was smaller with fewer people. It also had a long boardwalk back to the center where you could stand and look down at the penguins running right underneath the walk. It was really an amazing experience. The penguins were so cute! They were smaller than I was expecting, but then again, they were Little Blue Penguins, which are one of the smallest species of penguins.
After our experience with the penguins, we drove into town to a delicious dinner at a comfy restaurant. They had kangaroo on the menu, and DH was dying to try some. He really didn’t want a whole plate full, though, so they were kind enough to grill just a little for him in addition to his steak so that he could taste it. Neither one of us was impressed with the kangaroo. I’m not into eating rare meat, and apparently that is how it is served.
We had a great dinner and then settled in to our long drive back to our hotel in Melbourne. I think everyone fell asleep…it was about 9:00 by the time we started back. It had been a long fun day.
I have to say, Bruce was an excellent guide. We learned a lot, and felt more like we were hanging out with an expert than on a guided tour. He was also very considerate. When we arrived at our hotel, I was sleeping. So, we quickly woke up, exited the van, and tipped Bruce. After we got up to our room, I realized that I had left my hat (which had sentimental value) in the van. We considered it lost forever….until we checked out the next morning. Bruce had come back to the hotel after dropping off the other passengers and left the hat at the desk. I was very appreciative. It was really late and he did not have to do that.
We returned to our room ready for some sleep, especially since we were leaving for New Zealand early the next morning. It was sad leaving Australia. We thoroughly enjoyed every day there and look forward to our next visit.
Nov 2nd, 2007, 06:55 AM
#24
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Travel Day
The next morning we woke up early and went to the airport to catch our flight to New Zealand! It was nice to be picked up by a driver to get to the airport. We had drivers picking us up and dropping us off at the airport each time we changed cities, which was really nice. We didn’t have to worry about transportation at all hardly. I’m not used to traveling that way, but I think I could get used to it! Haha
We had to get to the airport early, of course, since the flight was international. We had no problems checking in and getting through security. We had breakfast in the airport. It was decent. DH had something from Burger King, and I had something from a coffee place. It may have been Starbucks. I don’t remember. Anyway, we had our quick breakfast and then figured out how many Australian dollars we had left. We set aside a few to keep, as DH collects currency (I spend it), and went to the outrageous airport gift shop. While shopping in Sydney and in Melbourne, we looked and looked for kangaroo jerky. We thought it would be a fun souvenir to take back to my brothers. We didn’t find much, but there was some at the airport. So, we bought some kangaroo jerky, crocodile jerky, and emu jerky. Just for the record, I didn’t want to buy the emu jerky, since we have emus in Tennessee. I wanted to buy a bottle of water for the plan. Oh well. DH won, so we bought the jerky and boarded the plane waterless.
The flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was eventless. I don’t remember much. I think I read and DH did some Sudoku. The drinks and snacks on board were for purchase, so I regretted giving in on the jerky decision! Oh well. I didn’t really need anything.
We had to go through customs upon arriving in Queenstown. Guess what they took from us????? You are correct…the emu jerky!! I had to laugh. I bet I would have been allowed to
In Christchurch, we had a short wait in the airport before flying to Queenstown. During the wait, we tried to get our seat assignments changed, as we were not seated together. That was kind of annoying, as we had booked months before and had requested seats together. The customer service agents with Qantas kept citing “human error” as the reason we weren’t seated together. Oh well. It was short flight and not really worth arguing about, so we gave up.
The flight to Queenstown may have been short, but it wasn’t uneventful! We were seated at the very back of the small plane. As we neared Queenstown, we entered a storm. We had the bumpiest 30 minutes of plane riding I have experienced! Luckily, we landed safely at the airport. There was talk of diverting us somewhere, but we made it. It took a while to get to our hotel, as we were the last dropped off from the van that was taking us to town. We instantly loved the hotel when we walked in. The St. Mortiz had one of the coziest lobbies I’ve ever seen! I loved the fireplace, the couches, all of the wood…it was nice.
We were tired, we had traveled most of the day, and were ready for a nice dinner and bed. It was freezing cold, raining (which turned to snow!) and we just wanted a casual dinner. We asked our hotel for an Italian recommendation, and he recommended Fatz Cat. http://www.fatzcat.co.nz/index.htm We went there and loved it! I had a pasta dish and DH had a chicken dish. Both were excellent, as was the bread. This restaurant was cozy, reasonably priced, and a nice warm place for dinner. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at an Internet Café to check email. We hadn’t had any contact with home for over a week, so we thought it wise to at least send a quick update to a few key family members. We stayed for about an hour and then walked back to our hotel. We promptly went to bed and had a good night’s sleep, ready for a big day tomorrow!
The next morning we woke up early and went to the airport to catch our flight to New Zealand! It was nice to be picked up by a driver to get to the airport. We had drivers picking us up and dropping us off at the airport each time we changed cities, which was really nice. We didn’t have to worry about transportation at all hardly. I’m not used to traveling that way, but I think I could get used to it! Haha
We had to get to the airport early, of course, since the flight was international. We had no problems checking in and getting through security. We had breakfast in the airport. It was decent. DH had something from Burger King, and I had something from a coffee place. It may have been Starbucks. I don’t remember. Anyway, we had our quick breakfast and then figured out how many Australian dollars we had left. We set aside a few to keep, as DH collects currency (I spend it), and went to the outrageous airport gift shop. While shopping in Sydney and in Melbourne, we looked and looked for kangaroo jerky. We thought it would be a fun souvenir to take back to my brothers. We didn’t find much, but there was some at the airport. So, we bought some kangaroo jerky, crocodile jerky, and emu jerky. Just for the record, I didn’t want to buy the emu jerky, since we have emus in Tennessee. I wanted to buy a bottle of water for the plan. Oh well. DH won, so we bought the jerky and boarded the plane waterless.
The flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was eventless. I don’t remember much. I think I read and DH did some Sudoku. The drinks and snacks on board were for purchase, so I regretted giving in on the jerky decision! Oh well. I didn’t really need anything.
We had to go through customs upon arriving in Queenstown. Guess what they took from us????? You are correct…the emu jerky!! I had to laugh. I bet I would have been allowed to
In Christchurch, we had a short wait in the airport before flying to Queenstown. During the wait, we tried to get our seat assignments changed, as we were not seated together. That was kind of annoying, as we had booked months before and had requested seats together. The customer service agents with Qantas kept citing “human error” as the reason we weren’t seated together. Oh well. It was short flight and not really worth arguing about, so we gave up.
The flight to Queenstown may have been short, but it wasn’t uneventful! We were seated at the very back of the small plane. As we neared Queenstown, we entered a storm. We had the bumpiest 30 minutes of plane riding I have experienced! Luckily, we landed safely at the airport. There was talk of diverting us somewhere, but we made it. It took a while to get to our hotel, as we were the last dropped off from the van that was taking us to town. We instantly loved the hotel when we walked in. The St. Mortiz had one of the coziest lobbies I’ve ever seen! I loved the fireplace, the couches, all of the wood…it was nice.
We were tired, we had traveled most of the day, and were ready for a nice dinner and bed. It was freezing cold, raining (which turned to snow!) and we just wanted a casual dinner. We asked our hotel for an Italian recommendation, and he recommended Fatz Cat. http://www.fatzcat.co.nz/index.htm We went there and loved it! I had a pasta dish and DH had a chicken dish. Both were excellent, as was the bread. This restaurant was cozy, reasonably priced, and a nice warm place for dinner. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at an Internet Café to check email. We hadn’t had any contact with home for over a week, so we thought it wise to at least send a quick update to a few key family members. We stayed for about an hour and then walked back to our hotel. We promptly went to bed and had a good night’s sleep, ready for a big day tomorrow!
Nov 2nd, 2007, 08:28 AM
#25
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Milford Sound
We awoke to one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. When we opened our bedroom door, we could see out of our living room window to a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu, with snow-covered mountains in the background. The sky was blue, and the view couldn¡¦t have been more perfect.
For our first full day in New Zealand, DH had schedule a day tour to Milford Sound. We did this tour with Great Sights, and it was much closer to what I normally expect from a tour (which is not a good thing). We rode in a big ¡§luxury¡¨ bus from Queenstown to Milford Sound. At first, there weren¡¦t very many people on the bus, but we ended up with a full bus as we picked people up along the way. Since we were the first ones on, we had a good seat the entire time. However, the last group of five had to seat scattered around the bus, since it was pretty much full at that time. I would have been annoyed at paying $400 for a tour and not being able to sit with my companions.
Incidentally, I don¡¦t know what we paid for anything. We booked everything through Qantas as a package deal. We purchased our flights at the beginning and end of the trip on our own, and Qantas handled all internal transportation, hotel booking, and tour booking. I priced everything individually and it came out to a lot more than what we paid, so I suppose we got discounts.
Before I start with all of the great parts of the tour, I¡¦ll make my one complaint. The tour was in English and Japanese. That is fine with me, except that the girl who was giving the tour in Japanese was also the one who was supposed to help all of the passengers with any questions. That was fine, except when we asked her a few questions, we found out that she didn¡¦t speak English! We asked the driver a few things but he just referred us to the non-English speaking girl. That was a little frustrating.
Anyway, the drive to Milford Sound was stunning. We made about 6 stops on the way. The entire drive was beautiful. I videoed for a while, but the camera couldn¡¦t capture the beauty. We drove along side beautiful lakes, majestic mountains, magical forests, and deafening waterfalls. The driver had pretty good knowledge and kept us entertained while educating us all morning. As cheesy as it sounds, I couldn¡¦t help but think I was in Middle Earth. If you want to know what New Zealand looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. I really wasn¡¦t trying to find movie scenes, but I couldn¡¦t help but expect to see a few hobbits or elves around every corner!
The land is absolutely gorgeous. I really don¡¦t have words do describe everything we saw. I¡¦m glad we weren¡¦t driving ourselves, because we surely would have driven off the road constantly. Everything was picture perfect, even though it wasn¡¦t a clear day. It snowed on and off, and rained a little here and there. The benefit to driving ourselves would have been being able to make more stops, but I don¡¦t think we would have ever made it to the Sound that way.
We made several stops on the tour. We stopped at a little lake town for morning tea. It was a touristy shopping place. Even though the tour guide told us that it was an overpriced shop, I¡¦m sure they have an agreement to stop there to provide business for the store. We had some great hot chocolate and re-boarded the big ¡§luxury¡¨ bus. The bus was pretty nice. It was spotless and comfortable. I didn¡¦t get carsick, which is a miracle, especially considering the curvy roads. I can¡¦t complain about the ride. The bus had a glass roof, which provided great views of the mountains.
We made a stop on the side of the road next to a river. The driver said the water was great to drink. So we took our hot chocolate cups ad drank up some fresh mountain water. My DH is a doctor and sort of paranoid about germs, but after he saw me drink some, he decided to try some too. I guess he figured if I was going to die he may as well die with me. As cold as it was, I doubt anything dangerous could have survived in that water. ƒº It was delicious and we kept driving. We stopped at some Mirror Lakes, which weren¡¦t that much of a mirror because of the wind.
Eventually we arrived at the Homer Tunnel, a man-made tunnel cut out of the mountain. DH loved this. We exited into the Cleddau Valley, which provided for more breathtaking scenery. The rocky snow-covered valley walls were awesome. (Sorry, I¡¦m running out of adjectives). We thoroughly enjoyed the snake-like road from the tunnel to the Sound. We were ready to exit the bus as we approached the fiord¡K(the Milford Sound actually isn¡¦t a sound, it¡¦s a fiord). We had a brief wait before our Red Boat cruise was to depart. We waited on the cold dock and eventually boarded our boat.
We had a buffet lunch at the beginning of the cruise. The food was okay. The windows of this room were very dirty, which was disappointing. As soon as we were done eating, we went to the upper deck of the boat in order to get clear views. The day had turned into a beautiful one. It was clear, sunny, with perfect blue skies! It was frigid though, with ice cold wind that easily penetrated my winter coat and hat. Oh well, the cold wasn¡¦t enough it dampen the beautiful cruise. We cruised down the fiord to the open ocean, passing many waterfalls along the way. As it had been snowing/raining the day before, there were tons of little water falls all along the cruise. Every turn provided a new scene worthy of photos. My DH is the photographer, so he took tons of pictures. I tried to video some, and it turned out great. I preferred to keep my cold little hands in my pockets, though.
The Cruise was long enough that we had a good amount of time to just stand by the railing together and enjoy the peacefulness of the deserted rugged wilderness. Well, peaceful except for the sound of the boat, but it wasn¡¦t too bad. The Cruise offered free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. After a while I was becoming numb all over, so I went down for a cup of coffee. I made the mistake of trying to go back up on deck with the coffee. Even with a lid tightly on the cup, it was so windy the coffee started blowing out of the sipping hole! I was amazed, had wet coffee hands, and retreated to the calm inside of the dining area. I quickly finished my hot beverage so that I could escape the room of the dirty windows and return to the deck with my hot (well, cold) husband.
We enjoyed the rest of the cruise up and down the fiord. On the way back, we saw a baby seal on the rocks. He was cute, and the Captain stopped for a while so that all could get their fill of photos and video. After that, I was really about to enter the early stags or hypothermia, so I again retreated to a table on the inside. DH was kind enough to accompany me, even though I know he probably wanted to stay outside. We relaxed for the rest of the trip back.
Upon landing, we were disappointed to find out that our scenic flight back to Queenstown was cancelled due to the weather. That is understandable. What was disappointing is that our guide told us that the flight is cancelled about 70% of the time! I don¡¦t know if that is accurate, but if it is I would have appreciated it if Great Sights could have warned us of the likelihood beforehand. Instead of a 45 minute scenic flight, we had a 5 hour bus drive back to Queenstown. I¡¦m glad we didn¡¦t have dinner reservations, as that would have been ruined. We were given a voucher to apply for a refund for the flight¡K.which reminds me, I need to check my credit card to make sure we got that refund! It would have been nice if they could have automatically refunded it, instead of us having to call to request it and then wait 6 weeks for it. Oh well, not that big of a deal.
We endured the 5 hour drive back, most of which was in the dark. It was a rough drive. I really felt for the driver. It started snowing pretty hard about halfway back. He did a great job, even if it was slow.
We arrived back in Queenstown late. I think it was 8:30 or 9:00, but I don¡¦t know for sure. As we were tired, cold, and had laundry to do, we opted for dinner at our hotel.
I am so glad we had dinner in our hotel. The meal was fabulous! DH had veal, and I had venison. We both really enjoyed our dinners. It was convenient to be able to put laundry in the washer, eat in the restaurant, and then put it in the dryer as we relaxed in the Jacuzzi in the hotel. The Jacuzzi was so nice, especially after such a cold day. The hotel staff kept it open late for us, so that we could enjoy it while washing our clothes. The washing machines were convenient also. We packed a lot of clothes, but still ran out by that time.
After soaking for a while, we took our clean clothes back to the room and fell again into a great comfortable bed in a cozy room. We had another cold day ahead of us that we were looking forward to! DH had planned a surprise tour for the next afternoon. I didn¡¦t know what to expect, but as his surprises are always great, I was looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to sleeping in a little. Our first scheduled thing of the day was a jetboating ride at 10:00 AM.
We awoke to one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. When we opened our bedroom door, we could see out of our living room window to a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu, with snow-covered mountains in the background. The sky was blue, and the view couldn¡¦t have been more perfect.
For our first full day in New Zealand, DH had schedule a day tour to Milford Sound. We did this tour with Great Sights, and it was much closer to what I normally expect from a tour (which is not a good thing). We rode in a big ¡§luxury¡¨ bus from Queenstown to Milford Sound. At first, there weren¡¦t very many people on the bus, but we ended up with a full bus as we picked people up along the way. Since we were the first ones on, we had a good seat the entire time. However, the last group of five had to seat scattered around the bus, since it was pretty much full at that time. I would have been annoyed at paying $400 for a tour and not being able to sit with my companions.
Incidentally, I don¡¦t know what we paid for anything. We booked everything through Qantas as a package deal. We purchased our flights at the beginning and end of the trip on our own, and Qantas handled all internal transportation, hotel booking, and tour booking. I priced everything individually and it came out to a lot more than what we paid, so I suppose we got discounts.
Before I start with all of the great parts of the tour, I¡¦ll make my one complaint. The tour was in English and Japanese. That is fine with me, except that the girl who was giving the tour in Japanese was also the one who was supposed to help all of the passengers with any questions. That was fine, except when we asked her a few questions, we found out that she didn¡¦t speak English! We asked the driver a few things but he just referred us to the non-English speaking girl. That was a little frustrating.
Anyway, the drive to Milford Sound was stunning. We made about 6 stops on the way. The entire drive was beautiful. I videoed for a while, but the camera couldn¡¦t capture the beauty. We drove along side beautiful lakes, majestic mountains, magical forests, and deafening waterfalls. The driver had pretty good knowledge and kept us entertained while educating us all morning. As cheesy as it sounds, I couldn¡¦t help but think I was in Middle Earth. If you want to know what New Zealand looks like, watch Lord of the Rings. I really wasn¡¦t trying to find movie scenes, but I couldn¡¦t help but expect to see a few hobbits or elves around every corner!
The land is absolutely gorgeous. I really don¡¦t have words do describe everything we saw. I¡¦m glad we weren¡¦t driving ourselves, because we surely would have driven off the road constantly. Everything was picture perfect, even though it wasn¡¦t a clear day. It snowed on and off, and rained a little here and there. The benefit to driving ourselves would have been being able to make more stops, but I don¡¦t think we would have ever made it to the Sound that way.
We made several stops on the tour. We stopped at a little lake town for morning tea. It was a touristy shopping place. Even though the tour guide told us that it was an overpriced shop, I¡¦m sure they have an agreement to stop there to provide business for the store. We had some great hot chocolate and re-boarded the big ¡§luxury¡¨ bus. The bus was pretty nice. It was spotless and comfortable. I didn¡¦t get carsick, which is a miracle, especially considering the curvy roads. I can¡¦t complain about the ride. The bus had a glass roof, which provided great views of the mountains.
We made a stop on the side of the road next to a river. The driver said the water was great to drink. So we took our hot chocolate cups ad drank up some fresh mountain water. My DH is a doctor and sort of paranoid about germs, but after he saw me drink some, he decided to try some too. I guess he figured if I was going to die he may as well die with me. As cold as it was, I doubt anything dangerous could have survived in that water. ƒº It was delicious and we kept driving. We stopped at some Mirror Lakes, which weren¡¦t that much of a mirror because of the wind.
Eventually we arrived at the Homer Tunnel, a man-made tunnel cut out of the mountain. DH loved this. We exited into the Cleddau Valley, which provided for more breathtaking scenery. The rocky snow-covered valley walls were awesome. (Sorry, I¡¦m running out of adjectives). We thoroughly enjoyed the snake-like road from the tunnel to the Sound. We were ready to exit the bus as we approached the fiord¡K(the Milford Sound actually isn¡¦t a sound, it¡¦s a fiord). We had a brief wait before our Red Boat cruise was to depart. We waited on the cold dock and eventually boarded our boat.
We had a buffet lunch at the beginning of the cruise. The food was okay. The windows of this room were very dirty, which was disappointing. As soon as we were done eating, we went to the upper deck of the boat in order to get clear views. The day had turned into a beautiful one. It was clear, sunny, with perfect blue skies! It was frigid though, with ice cold wind that easily penetrated my winter coat and hat. Oh well, the cold wasn¡¦t enough it dampen the beautiful cruise. We cruised down the fiord to the open ocean, passing many waterfalls along the way. As it had been snowing/raining the day before, there were tons of little water falls all along the cruise. Every turn provided a new scene worthy of photos. My DH is the photographer, so he took tons of pictures. I tried to video some, and it turned out great. I preferred to keep my cold little hands in my pockets, though.
The Cruise was long enough that we had a good amount of time to just stand by the railing together and enjoy the peacefulness of the deserted rugged wilderness. Well, peaceful except for the sound of the boat, but it wasn¡¦t too bad. The Cruise offered free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. After a while I was becoming numb all over, so I went down for a cup of coffee. I made the mistake of trying to go back up on deck with the coffee. Even with a lid tightly on the cup, it was so windy the coffee started blowing out of the sipping hole! I was amazed, had wet coffee hands, and retreated to the calm inside of the dining area. I quickly finished my hot beverage so that I could escape the room of the dirty windows and return to the deck with my hot (well, cold) husband.
We enjoyed the rest of the cruise up and down the fiord. On the way back, we saw a baby seal on the rocks. He was cute, and the Captain stopped for a while so that all could get their fill of photos and video. After that, I was really about to enter the early stags or hypothermia, so I again retreated to a table on the inside. DH was kind enough to accompany me, even though I know he probably wanted to stay outside. We relaxed for the rest of the trip back.
Upon landing, we were disappointed to find out that our scenic flight back to Queenstown was cancelled due to the weather. That is understandable. What was disappointing is that our guide told us that the flight is cancelled about 70% of the time! I don¡¦t know if that is accurate, but if it is I would have appreciated it if Great Sights could have warned us of the likelihood beforehand. Instead of a 45 minute scenic flight, we had a 5 hour bus drive back to Queenstown. I¡¦m glad we didn¡¦t have dinner reservations, as that would have been ruined. We were given a voucher to apply for a refund for the flight¡K.which reminds me, I need to check my credit card to make sure we got that refund! It would have been nice if they could have automatically refunded it, instead of us having to call to request it and then wait 6 weeks for it. Oh well, not that big of a deal.
We endured the 5 hour drive back, most of which was in the dark. It was a rough drive. I really felt for the driver. It started snowing pretty hard about halfway back. He did a great job, even if it was slow.
We arrived back in Queenstown late. I think it was 8:30 or 9:00, but I don¡¦t know for sure. As we were tired, cold, and had laundry to do, we opted for dinner at our hotel.
I am so glad we had dinner in our hotel. The meal was fabulous! DH had veal, and I had venison. We both really enjoyed our dinners. It was convenient to be able to put laundry in the washer, eat in the restaurant, and then put it in the dryer as we relaxed in the Jacuzzi in the hotel. The Jacuzzi was so nice, especially after such a cold day. The hotel staff kept it open late for us, so that we could enjoy it while washing our clothes. The washing machines were convenient also. We packed a lot of clothes, but still ran out by that time.
After soaking for a while, we took our clean clothes back to the room and fell again into a great comfortable bed in a cozy room. We had another cold day ahead of us that we were looking forward to! DH had planned a surprise tour for the next afternoon. I didn¡¦t know what to expect, but as his surprises are always great, I was looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to sleeping in a little. Our first scheduled thing of the day was a jetboating ride at 10:00 AM.
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carylspall
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Mar 6th, 2008 04:02 PM
