It didn’t even take leaving the airport in New Zealand to get a dramatic message on how serious the Kiwis take the unspoiled and pristine condition of their country and environment. We got snagged waiting for our luggage to arrive by a customs agent and her contraband-sniffing dog (a really cute beagle!). Fortunately, we had properly “declared” on our customs form that we had some fruit and dairy products; had we not, we would have had to immediately pay $400! “Sniffy” found our cheese and crackers while I (Billy) was openly eating the grapes (anticipating their confiscation). I was soooo right! After gathering our luggage, we were directed to additional customs inspection and wound up with them very carefully checking and cleaning all outdoor shoes and scrutinizing our wooden souvenirs. We’ve never experienced customs like that…New Zealand is a special place! We finally cleared customs and immigration, secured our rental car, and were off to Queenstown (QT)…. and what a great place we found!
For starters, QT is self-proclaimed as the “Adventure Capital of World”…and any walk down the main street (Shotover Road), has signs everywhere advertising a long list of adventure opportunities and offerings!
Just shortly after we checked into our hotel room, which was just next door to a schoolyard field, and with a beautiful view of nearby mountains…a tandem paraglider descended from the skies and gently landed in the field! About an hour later, another tandem paraglider appeared and landed…very cool!!
Queenstown is a small town bustling with tons of young people and it is set on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. This lake is gorgeous, really huge and in the shape of a lightening bolt. All of the waters here are crystal clear…it’s amazing…if it’s not too deep, you could drop something and easily find it! The lakes and rivers are beautiful shades of blue and green! Surrounding the town are open fields and rolling hillsides with scattered trees and rugged mountains, some with snow-covered peaks!
We explored the surrounding areas and visited a nearby old gold mining town called Arrowtown…now it’s a really adorable and quaint little town with wonderful flowers everywhere!
Then we visited the site of the original bungy jumpers on a bridge over a rushing river…just to watch!…neither of us was interested in jumping but it was real interesting and fun to watch! This girl didn’t look too nervous..
Our adventure activity of the day was taking a Jet Boat ride up the Dart River which included a beautiful drive to a tiny town called Glenorchy. The Jet Boat goes really fast on a very shallow river, and often times did 360 degree turns! It was amazing how the boat could navigate such shallow river waters! It was great fun and the scenery around us was constantly amazing…waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, little inlets with clear green water, and beautiful hillsides in countless shades of green…
Afterwards we walked through a nearby lush moss-covered forest used for filming parts of The Hobbit movie and saw a chair prop that was left by the movie makers! We had a great day!
They also do bungy jumping at the top of a gondola ride near our hotel in QT so we went to check it out…amazing views! After watching several bungy jumpers we took luge rides down the mountain!! Not nearly the same adrenalin rush of bungy jumping, but lots of fun!!
These bungy jumpers get to run and jump!!
Next day we drove 2 hours (including more really curvy roads hugging the lake) to the town of Te Anau, for our cruise the next day into the fiords. The drive was beautiful…more great views of Lake Wakatipu and hills and mountains…and lots of sheep!
It was great to finally reach the little town of Te Anau, and we loved the beautiful lake which was just across the road from our hotel.
Cruise day started with a beautiful rainbow over Te Anau Lake…a good omen for a really great day!
As we were driven the 2 hours to Milford Sound for the cruise, it became much more foggy with sprinkles…no surprise…it rains nearly 300 days a year in these parts…but the fog and mist just added to the experience and would provide the waters for great waterfalls!
On our return drive to Te Anau we viewed lots more waterfalls, hiked across a suspension bridge to view rushing rivers through gorges, lush forests, and fields of purple, pink and white lupines, which I love!! They call these lupines the local “weed”…they are everywhere…particularly along the highways…love these “weeds”!
Te Anau is probably the most southern location that we will ever be in our lives…we are really south here…closer to Antarctica than any other continent except for the most southern tip of Chile and Argentina…and it gets dark really late this time of year, like nearly 10:30pm!