| New Zealand South Island: Queenstown |
| on to Milford Sound ...or |
| capital of New Zealand. In short, it is intended to be a young tourist heaven. I, however, had not purchased travel insurance for the trip (and I wouldn't have forked over the money that would have been required to get those types of activities covered anyway). Frank could do anything except crash a race car to be insured, but he didn't partake in bungying, white water rafting, abseiling, or any of the other myriad of near- |
| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Aotea/Kiwi/NZ Adventures |
| It took us 8 hours to drive to Queenstown from Lake Matheson. We may have done it in 6 or 7 had we not stopped around every third bend in the road to admire the views! This is one of the many lovely ones that we encountered (even in the still mostly cloudy and foggy weather). Queenstown is the extreme adventure sports and shopping |
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| death options either. We arrived there late in the evening, having the entire day there the next day. The first thing we saw was the fantastic lake view out of our room window (pic left). Then we headed into town for dinner and to check out a few shops before they closed (finally, a tourist town that truly understood the concept of late night shopping)! |
| The next morning we visited a kiwi house. These flightless birds with feathers more like fur and long needle-like beaks used for pecking grubs out of the ground are endangered and are also nocturnal. Accordingly, there are kiwi breeding houses scattered all over the place. This is just the one we chose to visit. Because the kiwis are nocturnal they are kept in enclosures on a reversed light schedule |
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| that they will be active during the day. So the place is dark when you enter and your eyes have to adjust before you can see the little guys in action. For obvious reasons flash photography is not allowed, so here is a postcard photo of one for those who haven't had the pleasure of seeing one before. It had other native birds as well, several others also flightless. One of the most popular among touists is the Kea (pic below far left), I figure it is NZ's answer to the kangaroo. As they lack any annoying animals |
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| bigger than the possum (they also lack snakes or poisonous anything), the Kea takes over the tourist pestering role. However, the talons and curved beak limit the cuteness factor. The house also had some tuataras (pic near left) - these are lizards that exist only in NZ, have not evolved since the dinosaurs, and have their very own reptile class devoted just to them. |
| We spent the next while having lunch, browsing the shops and markets, and taking in the lakeside atmosphere. Queenstown is well known for its fabulous views of the Remarkables, a small mountain range to the west. While we were walking around the markets, I stopped to take a picture of the view that you get from the marine parade (pic below right). Nice of the seagull to pose, I thought... Shortly thereafter we boarded the TSS Earnslaw (pic below left), a steamboat that was going to take us on a tour of the lake. The views on the trip were just as spectacular as the picture from the |
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| boardwalk, so the decision to take this trip over bungy jumping or white water rafting (things we could do at home if we really wanted) came with no regrets! |
| That evening we ate at a great pub that my friend Lindsay had recommended called Pog Mahones (a liberal spelling of 'kiss my ass' in gaelic). We sat on the second floor overlooking the lake and drinking great NZ brew and eating good hearty pub fare to take off the evening chill. A bit more shopping and we were headed for the hotel, ready for our bright and early departure for Te Anau and Milford Sound the next day. |
| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |