We took an extended weekend to the south island of New Zealand – we flew into Queenstown and out of Christchurch. Weather in early spring in New Zealand is sketchy, so a couple of days before the trip the weather forecast was 90% rain for the entire trip. When we landed in Queesntown, it was rainy and cold but the weather forecast for the following days was improving. Luckily we ended up with a partially sunny day for Milford Sound and two glorious days for Mt. Cook and our drive to Christchurch. New Zealand is completely different than Australia – Australia has few high mountains and the ones that they have are very old (even in geological time) and wind has eroded the sharp edges off of the mountains. The mountains in New Zealand are relatively new and formed by two crashing plates and much higher and jagged with a lot of glacier formed valleys and lakes….the Southern Alps mountain range runs the entire length of the south island.
Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world – bungy jumping and jet boating were invented here. No adventures for us, all we did was take a gondola ride to the top of a mountain overlooking the city and lake. The town is nice and we visited a wine tasting room focused on the New Zealand region of Otago which is known for Pinot Noir and we also went to two great restaurants – The Cow and The Flame. Our primary activity is Queenstown was to take a bus trip to Milford Sound – 5 hour bus trip each way (but very scenic with stops and passing many alpine lakes) and a 2 hr cruise in the sound – really good day trip with combination of rain, clouds, sun, snow, and blue sky. The bus trip and cruise was pretty spectacular – very similar to the fjords of Norway. Lots of pictures attached and Mt. Cook and Christchurch are separate posts.
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