Milford Sound

After leaving Gayle and Andy's we headed for Te Anau and Milford Sound. Just another cruisey drive past Queenstown and into the boonies. Rolling mountains and lakes passing by. Like Scotland, The Lakes, The Yorkshire Dales and Dartmoor rolled into one! We spent a night in a camper site so a chance for a bit of washing and a good hot shower. Next day, we took in a hike up Key Summit on the way to Milford Sound. The approach to Milford Sound is along a winding road up into the mountains and then down through the Homer tunnel. Amazing to think the men hacking their way through with picks and shovels down through the mountain at an angle of 1 in 10. It was started in 1935 but not completed until 1953 ! Coming out the other side felt like being shot out of a huge cannon. Milford Sound is a truly majestic place, huge cliffs towering up into impenetrable forest. Water falls cascading down. We took a boat ride out to the Tasman. Seals sunning themselves and dolphins riding the bow wave right under our noses just made the trip special !




Camped here for one night - gorgeous.

Getting to the top of key summit. Never saw another soul all day

Its just a boy friend girl friend thing :)

What a morning view. Lake like glass, coffee on !

Heading into the tunnel

Strange little visitor. A mountain Kea. Only true mountain parrot in the world. Inquisitive creatures always on the prowl for a free meal and not to be messed with; very sharp beak and pointy claws. Little devil got on top of the roof, sounded like he was trying to eat the sky light so I took off quick smart. Got up to about 40 before he decided he'd had enough of a blow dry :)

Seals on the rocks

Dolphins surfing effortlesly in the boats bow wake. You can see our reflections looking over the edge at them, just beautiful to watch!

Queenstown

Spent a couple of action packed days in Queenstown. A nice place on Lake Wakatipu. Its got all the adrenalin sports crammed into it and some great bars and restaurants as well.

We booked up for the Shotover River Jet boat. This beast is powered by 2 v8 Chrysler engines. Now with that much grunt you might imagine this thing goes faster than a possum with a burning pine cone up its ass and you'd be right ! The power is directed to an impellor that literally blasts the boat along like a rocket. No external bits like rudder and propeller its all done on jets of water. Man it's pretty awesome, hurtling along river canyons at warp speed, doing 360's and proper fun for the petrol heads. Diane screaming like a banshee :).

I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong but I really love skydiving. So after a 10 year layoff it was back to the class room with my instructor Kras for a quick crash course and after a bit of delay waiting to get manifested on the plane we were climbing aboard. Man i'm getting sweaty palms just thinking about it :) !!

We're the smurfs front left as you look at the pic :)

Nothing like the smell of aviation fuel. It's just magic. The plane is a single engined turbo prop. Small but powerful. Holds about 8 people.

Kras takin a pic, I'm trying to look like it's not my first time :)

Yee haaaa :)

New Zealand - home of the long white cloud

Friends in Wanaka

Now I've either had a drink at the fountain of youth or someone is sitting in my seat :) It's young Joe Miller. When I was teaching scuba in Thailand it was my great fortune to meet Gayle and Andy. Now two of my best friends. We shared some amazing times, diving, dancing, drinking buckets and just laughing all the time. They now live in Wanaka and have 2 kids, Joe and Riley and right cute they are too :) The last time we met, Joe was about 3 weeks old. Man time flies. Gayle and Andy are back in the UK for a month now and about to tie the knot. Gutted not to make it so Good Luck Guys, we'll be there in spirit..... lager, whiskey, vodka you name it :)



Joe taking the wheel

Little Riley boo

Parade of Duckdowns and Jeans!

Well no meeting of friends is complete without a catalogue shot :)

Campervanning around New Zealand

Sadly I bought the small compendium of Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) sites. This is where they filmed the Cavalry charge in the final film, a place called Twizel. We spent about 20 minutes getting the same shot as the one in the book, blimey I can't believe I'm admitting that. Still there was a salmon farm nearby and we purchsed a lovely fillet for our tea.

Nice place to stop, gazing out the back of the van, brew on.

This was the Kawarau Gorge where the Pillars of the Kings was filmed in LOTR film one . "Long have I waited to look on my forefathers...." summat like that :)

Now this is more like it. Camper van in the middle of nowhereville. Fresh salmon pan fried with a pesto bread crumb topping. Nice glass of wine.

Followed by cheese and biscuits. The van has a gas fired heater which after 2 minutes has the old camper upto a nice warm temperature. Outside its bloody freezing and pretty inhospitable.

Chef Pople in his element. Where's my bottle washer gone? Diane where are you :) My glass is empty !!

Mt Cook, New Zealand

From Akoroa we headed inland across Mckenzie country towards Mt Cook. Man this place is just straight out of Lord of the Rings. Diane keeps laughing as I quote lines from the film as we go. "Rohan my Lord, is ready to fall"


I just had to stop the truck and get out. Just to appreciate the scale of it all, breathtaking.

Approaching the camp at Mt Cook for the first night. The wind picked up in the night, about 2am the van was shaking around like a leaf and Diane was freaking out. I reluctantly crawled into the driver seat and moved it to more sheltered spot.

Took Diane a good while to roll this snowball :) Now try chucking it ha ha didn't think of that did ya heh!

Stood on a huge chunk of ice in the glacial lake at the foot of the Tasman Glacier, the water is a milky greenish colour from all the dissolved minerals reflecting light.

Stop it :)

Ah there she is the totally excellent Max and Paddy waggon. Stop anywhere and make your lunch and a brew.

The Tasman Glacier looking like some huge earth work, just awesome to see. I've never got up close to a glacier, its almost like a living thing moving inexorably down the valley, grating the rock like it is cheese !

Well this was as far as we could go, after 4 hours hard walking we had reached the trail head. Behind us Mt Cook and a converging mass of glaciers. On the way up we caught sight of a mountain goat standing on a rocky out crop. Still as stone, not a sound. He glanced casually down at us looking aloof with his beard and horns. Made me feel totally out of place. This really is such a wilderness.