They're still throwing people off it today.
Don't be shy ladies
Oh-oh, what's Dave doing?
Another lapse of sanity.
So long folks
Agggghhhhh!
Splash down
Well that's enough excitement for today!
Bungy! / Jan 26
We're headed out of Queenstown and drop in at the Kawarau Bridge where Bungy Jumping was invented over 30 years ago.
They're still throwing people off it today.
Don't be shy ladies
Oh-oh, what's Dave doing?
Another lapse of sanity.
So long folks
Agggghhhhh!
Splash down
Well that's enough excitement for today!
They're still throwing people off it today.
Don't be shy ladies
Oh-oh, what's Dave doing?
Another lapse of sanity.
So long folks
Agggghhhhh!
Splash down
Well that's enough excitement for today!
Te Anau and the Milford Sound / Jan 24 - 25
Te Anau
Imagine a big square, 50 km each side. Queenstown is near the top right corner, Te Anau is in the bottom left corner. Glenorchy and Milford Sound are very close in the top left corner but separated by a few mountains. There are plans to dig a tunnel or run a monorail to shorten the trip. Strongly opposed by the locals. Since we couldn't wait, we took the long way around to Milford Sound, overnighting in Te Anau.
Te Anau is a very small place, far removed from touristy Queenstown. It's a stepping off point for a few of NZ's popular great walks, the most well known is Milford Track (4 days). It's a much shorter trip from here to Milford Sound than Queenstown.
A helicopter pilot spent 10 years filming the Milford Sound and the surrounding area. (Part of that time he was accompanied by the site scout for Lord of the Rings) Finding no place to show his movie, he built his own theatre called Fiordland which holds 55 viewers in the lap of luxury. The movie is quite amazing (hold onto your seats). We have the DVD but we might need to buy a bigger TV.
Milford Sound
We took a small bus tour to Milford Sound.
We could have drove ourselves but the scenery was pretty distracting.
Plus there's a small single lane (of course) tunnel over a km long.
In the Sound there are waterfalls everywhere
We might have got a little too close on the last one.
And massive shear cliffs
After a sleepy ride home (another good reason to take the bus): The circus is in town!
Everybody is excited
More tramping
We take in a piece of the Kepler Trail
Woo-Hoo
We ran into some fellow Canucks.
Believe it or not, someone brought these to New Zealand on purpose! Goose poo - yech!
This is an overnight hut on the trail. Cozy.
Imagine a big square, 50 km each side. Queenstown is near the top right corner, Te Anau is in the bottom left corner. Glenorchy and Milford Sound are very close in the top left corner but separated by a few mountains. There are plans to dig a tunnel or run a monorail to shorten the trip. Strongly opposed by the locals. Since we couldn't wait, we took the long way around to Milford Sound, overnighting in Te Anau.
Te Anau is a very small place, far removed from touristy Queenstown. It's a stepping off point for a few of NZ's popular great walks, the most well known is Milford Track (4 days). It's a much shorter trip from here to Milford Sound than Queenstown.
A helicopter pilot spent 10 years filming the Milford Sound and the surrounding area. (Part of that time he was accompanied by the site scout for Lord of the Rings) Finding no place to show his movie, he built his own theatre called Fiordland which holds 55 viewers in the lap of luxury. The movie is quite amazing (hold onto your seats). We have the DVD but we might need to buy a bigger TV.
We took a small bus tour to Milford Sound.
We could have drove ourselves but the scenery was pretty distracting.
Plus there's a small single lane (of course) tunnel over a km long.
In the Sound there are waterfalls everywhere
And massive shear cliffs
After a sleepy ride home (another good reason to take the bus): The circus is in town!
Everybody is excited
More tramping
We take in a piece of the Kepler Trail
Woo-Hoo
We ran into some fellow Canucks.
This is an overnight hut on the trail. Cozy.
Queenstown / Jan 22 - 23
Queenstown is world renowned for throwing people off high places in a variety of ways.
There was a go-cart type run down the mountain, but driving a real car is much more of the thrill.
The downtown is stuffed with tourist offices, restaurants and bars.
Surrounded by mountains and lakes
And a Starbucks! (typical aussie/kiwi roofline)
A word about coffee. I've had maybe 3 cups of brewed coffee since we've arrived in Australia. Otherwise it's all been Expresso in various forms: Short White, Cappuccino, Latte and my favourite: Long Black which is double Expresso plus some hot water. Overall the coffee is consistantly good, but sometimes you have to wait for the barista. Timmy's 'double-double' would loosely translate as 'short white with extra sugar'.
Queenstown Hill Walkway
First tramp (aka hike) is up the hill overlooking Queenstown to 904m.
A bit of art on the hill
This is the top of the gondola.
Rain cloud moving down the lake
But it didn't last long
We glanced over our shoulders to see this
A few minutes later, it was gone
On the way back down: mom and the kids
We drove up to Glenorchy, passing more incredible scenery
More sheep
There are 3 million people in New Zealand and 30 million sheep. If they ever got organized...
There was a go-cart type run down the mountain, but driving a real car is much more of the thrill.
The downtown is stuffed with tourist offices, restaurants and bars.
Surrounded by mountains and lakes
And a Starbucks! (typical aussie/kiwi roofline)
A word about coffee. I've had maybe 3 cups of brewed coffee since we've arrived in Australia. Otherwise it's all been Expresso in various forms: Short White, Cappuccino, Latte and my favourite: Long Black which is double Expresso plus some hot water. Overall the coffee is consistantly good, but sometimes you have to wait for the barista. Timmy's 'double-double' would loosely translate as 'short white with extra sugar'.
Queenstown Hill Walkway
First tramp (aka hike) is up the hill overlooking Queenstown to 904m.
A bit of art on the hill
This is the top of the gondola.
Rain cloud moving down the lake
We glanced over our shoulders to see this
A few minutes later, it was gone
On the way back down: mom and the kids
We drove up to Glenorchy, passing more incredible scenery
More sheep
Road to Queenstown / Jan 21
one lane bridges,
along the coast
At Wanaka we choose the less traveled route that warned of sharp curves and steep grades.
It started innocently
Then we arrived at the mountains above Queenstown.
Someone needs a little help getting up the hill.
First we see this
Do I smell burning brake pads?
PS A couple of notes from Australia.
It's Australia day, Jan 26, and we're watching the show from Sydney. It's been at least 40 minutes of fireworks, lasers and fireballs set to music. Quite amazing.
In other news, the cricket series against India we tried to see in Melbourne on Boxing Day is still going on.
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