The Sound of Milford...

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

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...!

Wonderful Wanaka

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!

Lake Matheson

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!

Fox Glacier...continued

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...

Fox Glacier

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.

Punakaiki - pancakes and Kettle Pot

Leaving Kaikoura, we then had the longest drive of the trip over to the West Coast and Punakaiki. Westayed in a beautiful B & B, set in the middle of the rainforest. Unfortunately the rainforest was doing what it does best - raining! As we arrived late, we just headed over to the local tavern for some fish and chips - beautiful.

The next day we went down to the Pancake Rocks - these are a particular formation of rocks eroded by the sea and wind so they have become almost "layered". There is also an interesting set of "blowholes", where the sea water is pushed through the rocks releasing what looks like steam but is in reality, very fine spray. The most impressive one was Kettle Pot.

Kaikoura

We arrived into a sunny and hot Kaikoura - home to the crayfish...the viewws were spectacular. Our room had one of the best panorama's I think I've ever seen!

We had two days here, so the first day we decided to take the Whale Watching boat. Kaikoura is renown for its whales - they have a particular feature of the sea bed just off the coast whicn means the whales come into the shore regularly and therefore is pretty perfect for whale watching. Unfortunatel, the weather was pretty choppy and so we didn't see any whales on the boat, so we decided to take the Whale Watch helicopter the following day! This was fantastic - one of the best things I've ever done. We did see a whale and they are absolutely majestic and huge! You can't get the scale from these pictures but trust me, it was big!



There are some strange sights around in this town - it seems to attract the surfer/student crowd. These vans are everywhere - very basic, but very cool. You also couldn't help but notice how fresh everything is - the veg being no exception.