Milford!
Today we visited Milford Sound. We started off the day with a long drive up stopping at a few lookouts, like the mirror lake – that wasn’t a mirror because the ducks were making ripples, or a tunnel that only had one lane so we had to wait for cars going the other way, and awesome views of the surrounding cliffs and mountains. Also there were thin waterfalls everywhere, cascading down the rocks! After a short wait for the boat we boarded and started our adventure. We first saw a huge waterfall and then a huge mountain. Our guide started talking about all the cool plants and animals when some animals decided to show up. Dolphins! We saw tons of them swimming, diving and even jumping in and out of the water. It was so cool! There must have been at least 7 or 8 of them. After that awesome encounter, the guide set up a tray of glasses on the front deck and then went under a waterfall, filling them all up with fresh water. It tasted like snow! (Dad, Jay and Bee were the only ones of the 100 people on the boat who stayed with the glasses and experienced our 1st waterfall shower) Next we headed off, seeing a few more small waterfalls and going through the narrowest point in the sound as well as eating lunch and even went out into the Tasman Sea for a little bit. We then returned to the sound and got to see some seals- New Zealand Fur Seals, unique for their ability to climb on rocks! They were really cute! We then headed underneath another stunning waterfall – this one glacier fed- for our 2nd shower of the day, so refreshing. After that then we headed, dripping to the underwater observatory in a cove off Milford Sound. We learned that not only is Milford sound actually a fjord, when they tried to compensate for that they named the area “Fiord land”, spelling it wrong! We then got to go underwater in a huge tube that they built to observe the deepwater animals and plants that got tricked into coming close to the surface by the cold,dark, and salinity of the sounds. We saw some awesome fish and sea stars, along with amazing creatures like the black coral (which is actually white). On the drive back we stopped for a nice hike next to rocks carved out by a river. We also made it to our new Southern Most Point as a family- just below the 45th parallel in the town of Mossburn (and took a goofy pic with some tire artwork at a gas station)..After navigating the crazy windy roads of NZ at night (again), we finished with NZ pub food, steaks, burgers, fish and chips, sauviginon blanc, microbeers- and rugby on the TV! What a day!
That was looooooooong!
Today we drove from Queenstown to Hamner springs, which is a whopping 609 kilometers! We found a few places to break up the long drive. Our first stop was a fruit stand, which is only notable because it was in Cromwell, a town which has a giant sculptures of fruit. We then drove on, to the Clay Cliffs. They were giant cliffs made of clay (duh) that were jagged and formed cool patterns. We stopped to take a few pictures and took a quick little walk along the base. They were formed by a limestone deposit in the mountains. Moving on we found a really strange restaurant. It served mostly salmon food, but outside, you could feed the salmon in a pond. It was very weird. After that we drove up a mountain to a small cafe (at St. John’s Observatory) where you could see almost all of lake Tekapo and had lunch there. Next we went to the nice little town of Geraldine where we tried cheese and jelly, and had ice cream as well. Hopping back in the car we did our longest stretch of straight driving yet and made it all the way to Hamner springs where we immediately went to the hot tubs that the town is famous for. We had a good time relaxing after that long ride and had some fun on the (cold) lazy river. They had hot tubs at every temperature 38, 39 , 40, 41 and 42 C…some with unfiltered natural geothermal water – think sulfur smell! We wrapped up our day with food at another great pub with more steaks, good mashed potatoes, fish and chips and pavlova for dessert!
Ya yurt!
Me (bee) and dad started the day with a quick hike up to the top of one of the surrounding hills (Conical Hill) for some amazing views of the snow capped peaks and surrounding valleys. After everyone woke up we had quick drive to another jet boat place on the Waiau River and it was awesome! We went for about 1/2 an hour to 40 minutes on it going at a maximum of 90 kmh(kilometers per hour)witch is about a 55 mph! We did a TON of 360 turns(I think we did about 9 or 10 of them!) one funny thing was there was this one rock that they carved to look like a dog because another town had a rock they carved to look like a frog and they got jealous of it so they made their own(I was wondering how you get jealous of a frog statue?!) Once we were done we drove over Lewis Pass and took a short little hike for more amazing views with lakes and mountains. Followed up with a lunch on a balcony overlooking a river valley. Then we drove for a while, up one crazy road to the wrong place and a second dirt road up a mountain… and finally got to our next air b&b which was a. . . Yurt! In case you were wondering a yurt is like a permanent tent with a fireplace and real beds. It was pretty cool to have everything in one room and to all be sleeping together(like in the same room not the same bed)! We also had a little cabin next to us so we had a real toilet and shower. After mass in Motueka and burgers at Sprig and Fern (another great microbrew!) we settled in with a cozy fire in our yurt!
Abel Tasman
Today we did kayaking in Able Tasman Park which is this big park on the top of The North Island. We first took a boat ride to a beach where the kayaks were- and one the way saw the famous split apple rock and a few views of more fur seals- a protected species in New Zealand so you can’t get too close.
One of the cool things about the kayaks were they had spray skirts which is this thing you put on you and put it over the lip of the seat so you don’t get wet. We had a great guide from the Perth area names Shaq (not after the NBA player, but he did like basketball) Once we got out on the water we realized that the water was amazingly clear. Me(Bee) and dad were together in a kayaking because they were tandems. We were going through every rock channel and doing CRAZY turns! Another cool thing was that the bays were awesome. After a while we stopped for lunch in the backyard of a millionaire. All the houses there are super expensive because it’s the only land there only accessible by water taxi. Once we got back in the boat we paddled around for a while and then we found(dunn dunn dunnnnnnnnn) seals!!! we saw a couple of baby ones swimming around in the water and a few even came up to our boats! Once we got back we walked on a little trail to a cool lookouts (Te Pukatea Bay, Pitt Lookout) and and saw a weka bird- a goofy looking flightless duck of sorts. We then headed back to the shore to catch the boat back. For dinner we found this place called Fat Tui and had amazing fish and chips and burgers- so big you couldn’t put your mouth around one!
Biking through the grapevines
After a quick stop a Pelorus Bridge (big win for conservationalists to preserve a native NZ forest), we head to the the gorgeous Marlborough wine region. We did a really cool tour . It started at a bike shop where we rented bikes and then took off for the first winery. Our first winery was called “Forrest.” There they taught us all about how they harvest and how they make grapes perfect for the wine including an awesome machine that harvests all of the grapes. Me (jay) and Bee played cricket in the yard while mom and dad tasted wines. We also found all the grapes that the machine harvester missed. After about an hour there we hopped on our bikes and pedaled of to the next winery. At our next winery we first had a small lunch and then played giant chess and explored the garden area. In a shocking turn of events, mom and dad tasted wine. We then took a long ride to our next stop. At the next place there was a bocci pit and we had a delicious mango mousse while mom and dad (unsurprisingly) tasted wine. We had lots of fun playing and looking for the picolina (white ball). At the next place we tried to order food while mom and dad tasted but they didn’t bring the food until after mom and dad finished even after we specifically told them that only me and Bee would be sharing it. After that we biked back to the shop and hopped in our car. We decided to drive to one last winery (the famous Cloudy Bay) where there was cool swinging seats that we sat on and read. Leaving Marlborough, we drove to havelock, the green mussel capital of the WORLD (wan wan waaaaaaaaaaaaa)!We ate green mussels and they were delicious (and huge, twice the size of ones in the US) ! We also had lots of fun laughs at the derpy mussels in a huge pot on the roof of the restaurant. Off to our hotel in Picton to get ready for our ferry trip the next morning!
We missed the mussels restaurant. So silly but so cute! The vineyards are gorgeous. Your writings are a good travelogue! ( Bee, you are tres amuse! Jay, you carry off sarcasm with charm!)