Milford Sound

Day 3 of our South island tour was to go to Milford Sound. This is one of the world's top tourist destinations. We had made a booking through a local tour operator to enjoy this day. It saved us from driving in unknown and winding terrain and weather conditions. Also, it is a very long drive approx 5 hrs one way, and best done by a professional we felt. Milford Sound is a fiord in the Fiordland national park.

The tour operator picked us up from our accommodation as promised; we started at 7 am.

Sitting in the comfort of our small tour bus, we gazed out at the Remarkables as the sun

slowly cracked to dawn. It was a long drive and all along we enjoyed the natural waterfalls and gushing

streams along the road. Generally the main event/activity scheduled for the day/trip becomes the highlight; but in the Milford Sound trip, the hightlights are the entire day and the journey itself!!

There were a few pitstops in the journey. Among them, there were some interesting stops. One was to see the Mirror Lakes. These lakes are amazing and the reflections are as good as the original! The picture says it all......

Later, we stopped to go into the woods and see a huge river gushing down into a waterfall. The walk was well paved into a wooden path and was just 15 minutes return. The rains had made the leaves greener and the water whiter! Though it was not deep into the woods, the huge trees and the general surroundings gave that fake feeling.

After the pitstops, we reached the fiord where there were many tourists like us. In a few minutes there was a cruise that would take us to the lip of the Tasman and return back to the small wharf. The cruise through the fiord was again one of its kind, with huge, huge mountains standing majestically all around you. The tallest is the Milford peak amongst them.

The cruise is 2 hours long and we saw some marine life too. On a sunny day, the cruise would have been much better, but on a cloudy day like ours, we had to be satisfied with the views and the experience we had! We had our packed lunch onboard, with heating facilities and bevarages, we were pleased with the cruise experience.

Before we could realize we were soon heading home, from the cruise trip. The familiar drive and some more missed out scenes were photographed, for the memory treasure. The famous NZ movie The World's fastest Indian (also NZ's highest grossing movie) was playing in the bus to enjoy our journey back to Queenstown. After another sumptous meal at an Indian restaurant we were embarking the end of our first leg of the vacation.

Continued in the next post..............

Heal the world........

The very first time I heard Black or White and the Dangerous album, I was hooked to the walkman. Yes, in the early 90s, the walkman with audio cassette player was the in thing! The audio cassette was one of my elder cousin sister's and I had borrowed it while she was home. An audio cassette of an international pop star was pretty expensive and I never dared to buy one.............

I would have heard all the songs a couple of times, flipping the cassette each time it ended on one side. I remember my mom getting really annoyed with my headphones glued to the ears, and not listening a word of what she was talking. That was the influence of the songs and the beats of MJ's songs on me....I was just in my early teen probably. I only had heard about this musician and minus the internet or the satellite television, one hardly knew what sort of music was created and played on the other side of the world.

Wish there was internet to research and hear more songs of MJ then......even I would have been like those crazy fans at the Staple centre, LA. All those who queued up to watch his memorial.

Today, I have an overdose of Michael and his life, death, the cause of the death, his career, his family...blah blah blah....everything that starts and ends with him. The television is brimming with information and the web traffic is quadrapuled.........his songs are the top selling in Itunes and the record sales of his albums......

Rest in peace, king of pop..........heal the world.

Fit for a queen.......

As our plane descended into Queenstown, we were treated to some breath taking aerial views of The Remarkables and the lake Wakatipu. This small city is nestled between The Remarkables mountains and the lake Wakatipu. They say that this place got its name from the tag "fit for Queen Victoria".........thus Queenstown!

The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu

Our 8 day tour of the South island, NZ started in this beautiful city. As the cool breeze blew in our face,we could not take eyes off

the stunning view of the snow capped mountains and the serene lake along the road. The month of June here, is the beginning of winter, so the snow was fresh on the mountains. Also, the trees were slightly green as the autumn had just passed. Soaking in the

beauty that we were surrounded we reached our Bed & Breakfast with a sense of high. Our friendly host helped us settle into our rooms and gave us some freshly baked scones to refresh. We were delighted to see that our room and the living room in the B & B also had the same view of the lake and the mountains. We were so happy and patted our backs for having booked this accommodation! :-)

After a quick lunch, our itinerary showed that we had to drive to Glenorchy. A small town that is almost at the tip of the lake Wakatipu, it is the house of many rich and wealthy in New Zealand who seek solace from the city life we heard. The weather was perfect and the drive was beautiful. There is no place like this we have ever been to....this was what we said to ourselves all the way we drove, soaking in the calmness and serenity of the nature. The short drive lead us to Glenorchy. We just stared at the mountains and rain drops that were now kissing the lake. The romance continued as we took off to return. As we reached Queenstown, it was almost dusk. The sun sets at 5 PM in winter and rises as late as 7.30 AM, so the days are shorter and it is challenging to squeeze in everything in a day's light. But t

hats the beauty of winter! The day 1 of our tour came to an end with a Gondola ride to see The Remarkables and the surrounding mountain ranges. We had a lovely stroll in the friendly city

and by the lake, and headed back for a good night sleep.

The Crown range pass

Day 2 started at 8 AM, after a sumptuous breakfast at our host's. The destination was Wanaka. The drive to Wanaka is through the Crown Range pass. The pass is home to one of the ski fields - Coronet peak. The ski field was just opened for the season. This particular drive is one of my favourites, the mountains were covered in some fresh snow here and there. They looked as if they were springled with some just the last evening! This was my first

encounter with snow and I was thrilled to see the white patches all around me.....it was yet another side of the nature I was waiting to see and touch all my life.

Things to see in Wanaka are the Puzzling World and the lake itself. The puzzling world had many mazes and puzzles and some tricks and mysteries of science. It took around 3 hours to see everything here, and then we headed straight to the lake. The water was ice cold and we did not dare to touch it! Both the lake Wakatipu and Wanaka are huge and deep, so the waves are just like the sea waves. They gently roar and splash the shore. There were joggers and tourists like us, everyone gaping at yet another mountain range back dropping the lake. Perfect with snow and a hint of vegetation, indicating the onset of chilly winter. We spent some more time, gaping, shivering and strolling along the lake. We were surprised to find an Indian restaurant even in this small town! Its amazing how we never found a problem in finding Indian food in this part of the world.......now thats the reach of our flavour and taste ;-)

Lake Wanaka

On our way back to Queenstown, we went to the famous gold rush town - Arrowtown. The small town has a museum illustrating the gold rush and its effects on the habitation of the Otago region. It was fascinating to go back in history of another part of the world all together. This town is neat and simple and has a friendly feeling to it. Every smallest town in this country has an Information kiosk, well equipped with all kinds of brochures and information leaflets, everything free of cost! This makes it easy for anyone to plan and make a good trip here.

Another day ended and our stay in Queenstown was coming to an end. Tomorrow was a day trip to Milford Sound and we needed to start early.

Continued in the next post.........