the Mitre on the Milford Sound
Backtrack 2.
If only Jane Austen had been to South Island New Zealand.. I wonder just how much her mind would have been blown by this sight let alone just Derbyshire after writing those famous words.
Moving on from the Catlins, we drove up to a place called Te Anau which is on the edge of the Fiordland. The drive itself was great. As we moved on up and across the country the mountains of the Fiordland and The Southern Alps began to appear and dominate the skyline. I thought this was super cool as I’d never really seen mountains before, or so many! Snow capped and jaggard and stretching as far as the eye could see from our spot on SH’s 6 and 94. Emily had found great amusement in my excitement over seeing the mountains get closer and closer and eventually being able to drive right along side them. Te Anau itself is situated right on a glacial lake on the boarder of the Fiordland National Park so it’s pretty amazing. As soon as we got to the hostel we dumped our bags, got changed and headed out to have a look around and to chill out after the drive. It was so tranquil but the place had life to it. For Southland it’s a well populated town with residence and tourists but its empty enough to still feel unspoilt. We hung out on the water front for a while then went back for dinner and an early night as the next day we were to head out in a tour to see the Milford Sound.
lake Te Anau
painting the view
Early next day we headed out on the bus. It turns out we were to get a lot more from our tour than we thought! The coach driver was funny and chatty and stopped off at loads of places on the way. We got to see the mirror lakes, glacial waterfalls and crystal clear rivers which had that iconic bright electric blue colour that goes with it. We also had to pass through the Homer Tunnel which is 1.5km long and is carved right through the base of the mountain to be able to access the Milford Sound. It was a bit unnerving driving so slow for so long in near total darkness but also really cool. You have to wait about 20 mins each side for the stream of traffic to make their way through before your side takes a turn.
When we came out the other side though we were greeted by a barren bowl of crumbling brown/grey rock which gradually turned back into green forest as we descended and weaved our way down the side of the mountain. Eventually we broke through and were at the edge of the water. It was truly stunning. Magnificently high and deadly steep slopes greeted our eyes and the water just glistened peacefully. We were incredibly lucky to have not just a dry day, but a sunny day – we were told that on average it rains 300 days out of the year around Fiordland and most of those dry days are just cloudy when it’s not pouring down.
Milford Sound Cruise
The cruise lasted about an hour and a half and we were given lunch and tea or coffee which were very welcome as the air was still quite cold. The hot drinks were especially welcome after they had driven us head first into a waterfall in the shady side of the valley! It was so much fun but oh wow was it loud and windy and cold and we just got drenched! However this was our own faults as you could choose to go out onto the front of the boat and have this done or be sensible and stay inside…but…who wants to sensible when you can do that?!
After we reached land again we hopped on the coach back to Te Anau with more great location stops on the way including one where we climbed down to one of the glacial rivers and filled all our water bottles up. I’ve always considered water to be boring, but I have to say, clean and straight from the river, it’s stupidly good.
Emily stood by the glacial river we drank from.
To finish off our time in Te Anau, the next morning before we left we went on a horse trek over some hilly farmland to the east of the town called Westray Farm. There were 8 of us and 4 guides. Depending on how much we had ridden before, and from what they gathered about your personality from chatting you us, we got paired up with our horse for the morning. The people that ran the farm were very friendly and extremely helpful! It was great when my horse was this lovely and gentle chestnut brown old boy called Hamish. He had clearly gotten used to the trek as I barely had to control him as he knew where he was going which was so nice. I also couldn’t help but think of the view I had from the back of Hamish was like that of riding a horse in Skyrim – this made me smile to myself a lot. The trail lead up the hills on the farm and came out with this amazing view over Te Anau and the lake and the forest covered mountains… Yup. Real life Skyrim.
me and Emily in Te Anau
Best quick attempt on my iPad i could be bothered to do
After this we went back to the hostel, collected our stuff and the car ready to drive up to Queenstown. We ended up taking two German girls that had stayed in our dorm who were also going to Queenstown. They had planned on taking the bus around and hadn’t managed to get seats on the day they wanted so we agreed to give them a ride as we were all heading the same way. They were really friendly and gave us some road trip sweets and some money for fuel. We listened to music and chatted with the sun blazing and windows down, just really chilled which was great. We made pit stops along the way once we reached the bottom end of Lake Wakatipu (New Zealand’s longest lake on which Queenstown is half way along) as it had some great views from look out points. We soon made it to Queenstown, dropped the girls off and went to find our own hostel. If anyone is heading to Queenstown, I recommend staying at Bumbles backpackers. They’re great. Right on the water front, just to the west side of the town centre without being in it. The dorms are clean and they have stupidly good views over the lake. The staff were fab and the social space had everything you want.
view om my top bunk iat Bumbles
What to say about Queenstown…? Personally I loved it. Having been away from the human population so long it was great to be around so many people. Finally, a town that functioned and had life and was sophisticated, cool and fun. There’s loads to do there from places to eat to extreme sports, days out and casual walks. It’s a place with a great energy which has not been spoilt by human activity and I think sits really comfortably where it is. It’s a busy bustling place but it’s small enough to not harm the landscape. You’ve still got all your mountains, lake and fields surrounding you. I’d happily move there right now. It’s my favourite town.
One of the exciting things we did in our stay in Queenstown was to go on a Lord of the rings tour!! We stopped at a couple of places on the way too but the main part of the trip took us up the lake to Glenorchie a tiny village at the top of the lake. The tour’s main biggest locations were on a farm (just past the village) known as Jimmy’s Farm, who now rents his land out to movies when they ask as it’s such a beautiful setting with mountains and rivers and fields. Here is where you could see where not only the mountain pass Caradhras scene (Frodo drops the ring, Boromir picks it’s up..they end in in the mines of Moria afterwards) was filmed but the scene scape for Isengard! A few other scenes from tLOTR and various films were shot here such as where Merry and Pipin walk with Treebeard to council, Beorn’s house from The Hobbit, the home of the old couple in Wolverine, and a few horse galloping scenes from Narnia. Also just before you reach here is where they filmed the Dead Marshes along with where Sam and Frodo see Oliphants for the first time. Super cool! We also had lunch near where they filmed Boromirs death scene in the Fellowship.
the dead marshes
Isengard!
Whilst in Queenstown there were two things we had to try out (other than bungy jumping which sadly we had to miss out on but I’ll explain that in the next post..). They were the Ferg Burger and the Luge. The Ferg Burber was something everyone who knew we were going to Queenstown said we had to try. Boy were they right. We waited 20 mins in line, then a bit longer for it to be cooked to order. I ordered the Chief Wiggam which was pork belly, hash brown, onion, lettuce and garlic sauce. It was incredibly scrummy *big silly grin* Emily got one called Sweet Bambi which was also very delicious. We took these and sat on the waterfront outside our hostel with beer and cider and watched the day slip over the mountains. The next day we tried the Luge. Now, my best description of this is real life, gravity driven Mario Kart! It’s super awesome zooming along at the top on a giant hill overlooking the lake. You take the gondola up and then the chair lift. Then it’s just smooth sailing, or not, depending on your ability to let go.
Ferg burger on the water front
chair lift up to luge
me at the top of a big slop on the faster track on the luge
To Journey Far and Back Again 