Queenstown Day #3

12/7/07

This morning we just hung out in the room and made some plans. Then we went into town and went to Monty’s brewery and restaurant, the official brewery of Monteith’s beer, which is a really good local beer. We both had a really good Cajun chicken sandwich. In Australia and here in New Zealand, they say “salad” for the lettuce, tomato, and other toppings for sandwiches. The description for the Cajun chicken sandwich said it had cheese, bacon, and salad on it, and the salad on this sandwich not only included lettuce and tomato, it actually had shredded carrots in it! Very strange, but it was really good. We also had a few Monteiths beers and a shot of tequila, but they aren’t much into tequila, or anything Mexican here. I miss my Mexican food and drinks! Another good New Zealand beer is Tui’s. The beer here is definitely better than Australian beer, and we just like New Zealand better than Australia already. I mean, Australia is great, but we really like New Zealand so far.

After lunch, we went on a flight and cruise to Milford Sound, which is one of the sounds in the Fiordlands on the southwest coast of the south island of New Zealand. The flight was in the smallest plane we’ve ever been in. Even smaller than the little plane we were in when we took the little flight tour to the Grand Canyon from Vegas a couple of years ago, which had a 2-seater bench on one side, an aisle, and then a 1-seater bench on the other side. This plane only had a 2-person bench. That’s it. It fit 10 people, including the pilot! But it was more fun that way. And we picked the best day to go in terms of weather because it was in the upper 70s and completely sunny with hardly any wind. However, in areas where we were going between mountain tops, there was enough wind to push the plane up and down, so our stomachs dropped a little. It was fun :)

The views from the plane were absolutely beautiful. This area is just breathtaking. All the lakes and rivers are a deep turquoise and there are mountains all around, some with trees, and some just rocky, and some with snow on them even now. When we got to Milford Sound, we got on a big boat and took a cruise in the sound. The sound is not super long (only around 13 km) but it’s super deep (300 meters)! But the lake outside of our hotel, Lake Wakatipu is even deeper, at 400 meters, and is the 3rd largest lake in New Zealand.

As soon as we pulled out of the harbour and got in the main area of the sound, the wind picked up like crazy! It was ridiculously windy. Thankfully we brought jackets and beanies, so we kept warm. There are a lot of waterfalls on the walls of the cliffs, most of which are temporary (meaning they are only around after it has rained), and one of them was blowing sideways because of the wind. That’s how windy it was!

The sound empties out into the Tasman sea, and when we got out there, there were 2 penguins just chillin’ in the sea. On the way back through the sound, we saw a bunch of sea lions laying on a big rock. Every time we see seals or sea lions, they are always just lying around all lazy. What a life. Well, I guess they do other things too, but we never see that part :)

After the cruise, we flew back to Queenstown. When we were taking off, it was so windy that it pushed the tail end of the plane (where we were sitting) to the left. It was really funny. When we got back to Queenstown, we walked around town a little and then we went back to the hotel and ate leftover pizza from last night (it was even better cold!) and hung out.

Check out the pictures of the Milford Sound flight and cruise views. This land it just so absolutely beautiful. And so untouched.