Herb's Blog

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Queenstown

Queenstown, which attracts a younger demographics, is located along the shores of a clear pristine lake, Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by mountains and perfectly situated for year round outdoors activities. The list of activities is long and the energy in this small city is high. We spend fours nights in Queenstown. Below are pictures from our activities around Queenstown.

Gondola ride to the top of Ben Lomond Mountain.

Views from Ben Lomond

Birthplace of bungee jumping, the Kawarau Bridge.

Lake tour on a 1912 steamer

Steamer tour includes dinner at Walter Peak

And sheep shearing demonstrations

Hike Queenstown Hill with Richard and Kurenai on our rest day, at 4.2 km and 500 meters.

View from Queenstown Hill

Below are pictures around Queenstown

Milford Sound

From Queenstown, we also did a day long trip to Milford Sound, a fiord on the south west coast of South Island within Fiordland National Park, for boat tour and some spectacular scenery within the Southern Alps of South Island

Our day tour was interrupted by downed trees and rock slides after high winds and rain during the night and early morning. Above, our bus waits nearly two hours for the road to be cleared of downed trees.

Road to Milford Sound

Touring Milford Sound

Heavy rains overnight meant lots of waterfalls around the fiord.

Fur seals

The boat tour and scenery were spectacular!

On the road back to Queenstown during last daylight.

Cute Alpaca

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

South Island Drive

New Zealand, the South Island; driving from Christchurch to Queenstown, from the east coast to the southwest, from the lowlands to the highlands, took all day with an evening arrival. Queenstown is a charming city, an outdoors play ground,set within the high mountains, the Southern Alps, along the shores of Lake Wakatipu.