Milford Sound

Friday April 19,2013

We did take a cruise down the sound or actually fiord. It is a fiord since it was formed by glaciers. We went down to the
Tazman Sea and turned around. We had some spectacular views.



This is Mitre Peak since it is shaped like a bishop's mitre hat. This is the entrance to the Sound.





Sailing down Milford Sound.


Tall mountains on both sides of Milford Sound. The photo just doesn't show how steep the mountains really are.


You can see how it narrows and widens as you sail through Milford Sound.


Walt trying to capture a photo of the small seals that we spotted on a rock.
I could not fit my iPad in the spot.


Here is a beautiful and fast moving waterfall that sprayed on the front of the boat as the captain turned the boat towards the falls. We did get wet.


Another gorgeous view sailing through Milford Sound.


The non-sunny side of the mountains while sailing through.


One last waterfall before docking.

It sure was a beautiful day for sailing in the sound. The sun was out and we enjoyed being able to actually stand outside on the deck to take photos. We could feel small in comparison to those tall rugged mountains as we entered the turn around for the Tazman Sea and returned back to the harbor. One thing we could not do was take the flight from Milford Sound and see the mountains from a different view. The wind was too strong and that is always a safety issue. All in all a wonderful day.

Road to Milford Sound

Friday April 19, 2013

We did try to do some shopping yesterday but our time was really limited and the stores closed early. We are in Queenstown for a couple more nights, so hopefully we actually are in the town area to do some shopping.

Today we are off to Milford Sound a 4 hour drive away.



Here is a scene along the road in Fiordland National Park. The park does not allow any non-native trees or plants to grow or thrive in the park. We also have seen several possum as road kill. The New Zealanders have a joke related to that. Why did the chicken cross the road? Just to prove to the possum that it could be done.

We stopped by Mirror Lakes which were to reflect but due to a brisk wind, the water did not reflect very well at all.






You can see the little ripples in one of the Mirror Lakes.







This is Falls Creek which has this huge fast moving waterfall that moves rapidly into the creek. My photos look a little blurred due to the motion of the water.



Monkey Creek in the foreground with mountains surrounding it. The old explorers climbed over a tree slip or tree slide off the mountain. The tree slide made it difficult for them to climb so they climbed like monkeys from branch to branch.

Leaving Franz Josef onto Queenstown

Thursday April 18, 2013
We took off from Franz Josef fairly early this morning. We drove through the Southern Alps on all kinds of switchbacks. The mountains are in the clouds this morning with only bits of blue showing. It is a little cool, but not too bad. We know we have FL blood so it is probably in the 60s. :-).




Just a peek of blue sky between the mountains here in the Southern Alps.
We stopped off on a path to Thunder Creek Falls which comes down off the mountainside. The foliage going through the walkway was very dense.








Thunder Creek Falls. This is in the Haast Pass through the mountains.
Next we stopped off for lunch at Makarora a small town of 12 population.




Across the road was a herd of deer. The deer are raised over here so have no reason to jump the fences. The venison is shipped to lots of other countries. Walt is trying to take a photo of the herd in the far right corner.




We drove along side Lake Wanaka which is 50 miles long and 1,000 feet deep. Lake Hawea is another of these large deep lakes from glaciers.




Lake Hawea.




Lake Wanaka.
This whole area is also the area where the land is leased from the government and here a special breed of sheep called merino are raised. This very fine wool is used in Merino sweaters and such. The thread is very fine and therefore not itchy on your skin. Some suits are also designed with this nice soft and wicking wool. It keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. They have had an overload of possum and are now raising them to blend with the merino wool and have a new blend of sweater that feels almost like silk. I believe the new product is called Merino Mink. Queenstown is the town to look for these products. Icebreaker is the New Zealand brand that is sold here and shipped elsewhere.
Next we stopped off at the Gibbston Valley Winery near Queenstown, New Zealand.












As you can see Walt is enjoying a sample. :-)
We the ate dinner up at the Skyline Restaurant with a beautiful overlook of the town of Queenstown. We also saw a Maori presentation there.




This is the cable car taking us up to the mountainside.




This is the beautiful view from up above of the town of Queenstown and the surrounding lake.
We had a very nice day but it definitely cooled down by the time evening rolled around.

New Zealand, leaving Christchurch to Franz Josef Glacier

Wednesday April 17, 2013
There was a great deal of damage to the Christchurch area due to the earthquake of 2011. Most of the downtown area is either being rebuilt, torn down or currently in a sad state. It does look as though there is great progress despite the damage to such a neat city.
We have an early start to our day once again as we leave Christchurch. We are on our way by trains and then coach to Franz Josef Glacier area. We will spend the night up near the glacier.




Mountains along the train of the TranzAlpine to Arthur Pass. That is where we will catch our bus. The mountains are really quite steep and vary from being very wooded to dry. We went through the flats first where there were lots of sheep and fertile fields. This was called The Canterbury Plains.




You can tell by the spots on the photo that it is starting to rain once again. It does look like we will have rainy weather throughout New Zealand. The train was about a 2 1/2 hour trip.




This is the clock tower in Hokitika where Jade is native to this area. It is a nice little town but mostly for tourists. This was a nice stop off to change money, have lunch and head to glacier area which is about 2 hours away.








Franz Josef Glacier and waterfalls nearby. Just very lovely. We were really lucky to have a glimmer of sunshine that peeked through.

Sydney Continued

Monday April, 15, 2013
We went to Koala Park to see some of the Australian animals. They are ones that could no longer make it completely in the wild, but are still wild animals.




Koala up in a tree.




Walt and the kangaroo.




Kangaroo ready to hop away.




A cockatoo that speaks if it wants to.




Emu strutting along.




Our group on the Sydney BridgeClimb. I am 4th from the right with blue cap on first row. Walt is right behind me with cap and sunglasses.




Our Certificate. This was great!




We had a Dinner Cruise in the harbor as a farewell to Australia. Tomorrow morning we have a flight at O Dark 30 to New Zealand.

Sydney

Sunday April 14, 2013
We toured the Sydney Opera and learned about the history of it as well as of the trials and tribulations of building it. It took 12 years to build instead of 2 and of course was considerable over budget. It sure was beautiful. We also went to the harbor area and got lovely photos of the bridge, the opera and the skyline.








The opera and bridge of Sydney.




The skyline of Sydney.
Russell Crowe also has a home or condo here that is selling for about 17 million. That is in downtown Sydney.
We also went to Bondi Beach area which is similar to Muscle Beach in CA. Wonderful waves were rolling in.




Our next stop is the opal area. Walt can not wait to purchase a black opal for me for his birthday,

Cairns, Australia

Saturday April 13, 2013
We were up and ready to go today to take the cable car up over the rainforest. It had a couple of stops enroute to see waterfalls and and various flora and fauna. It was spectacular. We definitely were way up in the mountains and absolutely could not see the ground with such thick foliage and tall trees. Only about 1% of light actually hits the floor of the rainforest.












On the way to Sydney we each had an iPad in our seat pocket. Once we got going, we just had to do a streaming movie. That was pretty impressive.