So - we reached the end of our Soth Island adventure and what an adventure it was...some truly remarkable sights and some unforgettable experiences.
The flight from Queenstown to Auckland was on the brand new All Black plane. This is an Airbus (I think) specially painted in black to commemorate the 2011 Rugby World Cup being held in New Zealand. This is the first flight I've been on where you could (if you wanted to ) use your mobile phone!
We landed back in Auckland and then drove up to the North Shores to spend our final night in Gulf Harbour...:-(
We drove over from Te Anau to Milford Sound - quite a reasonable drive with some pretty steep climbs/descents and some spectacular countryside. The tunnel, bored straight through solid rock was a sight to behold as well as the Kea strutting his stuff on the other side!
Once we arrived in Milford, we were booked on the RealCruise ship for a couple of hours journey up and down the Sound. It was interesting to see absolutely no-one on the top of the boat so we had a great view of everything. The boat goes so close to the sides, its untrue. They get so close, the water from the falls hits the bow of the boat!
Te Anau seems to be famous for being close to Milford Sound however it does have some of the nicest food we tasted in NZ. There's a particular pie ship which serves excellent Venison pies - "Miles Better Pies and more" and there is an Italian restaurant which served Venison pizza - seriously the best...
The local Chinese restaurant made me laugh though - particularly the road it's on...!
Leaving Fox Glacier, we drove further down the West Coast before turning inland to Wanaka. Almost like a smaller Queenstown, Wanaka is a very pretty place - just coming into its Winter season. The blue of Lake Wanaka and Hawea is just stunning and somewhere its worth spending time at.
SJ decided to get her nails done here, so I opted for a walk up Mount Iron - quite a strenuous walk as it turns out, near vertical in places. Still, it was worth it for the view...
We had two days in Wanaka before we headed towards Te Anau. On the way out of Wanaka, there is a very spectacular viewpoint. We stopped and were rewarded with this plane (top left coming in to land at Queenstown - kind of gives you an idea of the scale!
Just outside Fox Glacier is Lake Matheson - the reflection of the mountains onto the lake is quite incredible, although you must have a still day...we were lucky!
The next day was bright and sunny so we were on for the helicopter trip. It was absolutely spectacular althought here were a few strange things inside the cockpit...
Once on top of the glacier it was actually pretty cold, around -4 apparently. The view though is stunning, breathtaking...
Leaving Punakaiki we followed the West coast to glacier country. There is a choice of two glacier's to see - as SJ had already seen Franz Josef, we were staying at Fox Glacier. Weather was a little overcast at first sowe were not able to do the helicopter trip that we'd booked, and so it was deferred to the next day.
