We got away from Invercargill at 8am, Oooops free.
We had a very smooth easy drive north up into the southern alps and Queenstown, arriving at about 10:30.
We had booked a flight and tour to Milford for 2pm, but were asked if we could go at 12 instead, which suited us just fine. So we relaxed in the foyer for 1/2 hr and then were picked up to go to the airport. We had a great, bumpy, flight down to Milford Sound. The scenery was magnificent. Bright blue skies and the alps were glistening in the sunshine. We got on board our boat for the cruise and spent the next 2 hrs meandering up one side of the fiord and back down the other. The weather has been very dry here, hardly any rain for some time which is very unusual for a place that has an annual rainfall of over 3000mm, so there were only 2 waterfalls flowing, the Bowen and Stirling Falls. The wind picked up about 30 minutes into the cruise and the water got pretty choppy with small whitecaps everywhere. There was enough shelter in the fiord and on the boat that it didn’t have any impact on us. We were lucky enough to see The Mitre Peak, 1682m high, one of the worlds highest mountains that rises directly out of the ocean floor. We saw a few NZ Fur Seals, doing what seals do, laze around like slugs on the rocks.
After the cruise we had a short walk back to the airport to get our flight back. Apparently, the Milford Sound Airport is the second busiest in NZ on good weather days (to Auckland Airport). Georgie got to be co-pilot on the way home, which might explain the bumpier ride home than the trip out!!!
For dinner we decided to have some local cuisine, so we went into town and all had a Fergburger for tea. Yes, you haven’t lived until you have had a world famous Fergburger. 🙂 (was fabulous and so was the restaurant, people queue out the door and up the street, it is well worth it)
We plan a slow day tomorrow, which will be good.
On a sadder note Georgie got a message through to let her know her Uncle had died (not unexpectedly), R.I.P. Neill.
