Milford Sound

 Sunday, March 2

We really wanted to see Milford Sound, but the drive EACH WAY is 4.5 hours and seemed a bit much to do in one day.  

Our solution?  We splurged and booked an excursion with Milford Sound Scenic Flights that included a flight and a cruise once we got there.  However, yesterday we got a call that our 8 am flight for today had been cancelled due to weather conditions. But they had a 10 am if we wanted?  We said okay but were told to call again this morning to check weather conditions.  So it was a lot of will we or won't we?

They ended up calling us this morning to say that the flight was still on at 10 am if we wanted, but they could not land or do the cruise. So they would refund part of our payment.  Okay then. At 9:15 am, they picked us up at our hotel, which was nice. 

The plane was a 13 passenger Cessna Grand Caravan.  Everyone had a window seat!!!

The flight was a bit over an hour long, with a VERY young pilot who has been flying for one year.  We went through 3 mountain ranges and it got quite bumpy in places.  At times we had to reach up to grab our stomachs...

But it was truly stunning scenery:

We had views over Glenorchy, where we are hoping to go tomorrow:

We could see the Milford Sound airport below us:

By the way, Milford Sound isn't actually a "sound"; it's a fjord.  It rains 184 out of 365 days, with 6412 mm of rain per year, making it one of the wettest inhabited places on earth.  There may be more rain here in one day than some countries get in an entire year!  Despite all that, it is New Zealand's most visited tourist attraction. Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound the "8th Wonder of the World".

Mitre Peak is the most photographed mountain in the southern hemisphere.  It rises 1690 m (5544 ft) straight out of the water.

Because we didn't get to land, the pilot did a special side trip to see this waterfall:

He literally flew right between 2 mountains and did a very tight turn in front of another mountain.  Anton's favourite part was that as he was doing this, the pilot was reaching over and taking photos:

We flew back over the Southern Alps, he flew right over a road and so close to the rugby game that we could have plucked up a few players.  We were dropped off at our hotel around noon.  Time to recover from the bumpy ride.  No more small plane scenic flights for us!

This gave us the afternoon to explore Queenstown a bit.  Yesterday we had cancelled our 5 pm evening cruise for today because the weather looked horrible.  Now today the weather was nice and we regretted it (that's how changeable weather here is!).  When we checked, the evening cruise was no longer available, but Frankie found a last minute booking on the lunch cruise that left at 1 pm.  Confusing?  It all worked out!

Lunch plans: We made our way to Steamer Wharf where we boarded the TSS Earnslaw Cruise at 1 pm.  The TSS Earnslaw is a vintage steamship, launched in 1912 (the same year as the Titanic).  She was called the Lady of the Lake.  She was almost scrapped in 1968, but was rescued by RealNZ and restored to its original condition .  The TSS Earnslaw was featured in one of the Indiana Jones movies, but they pretended it was an Amazon River Boat.  We were even allowed into the engine room to watch the coal-stokers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQmei010Gpo

The cruise started at the Steamer Wharf and went 45 mins across Lake Whakatipu to Walter Peak Farm.

This is Walter Peak High Country Farm.  It was originally constructed in 1902 but had to be rebuilt after an accidental fire in 1977.  It is 63,000 acres of land, has 20,000 sheep and 1000 cattle.

At the farm, we had a buffet lunch (TONS of gluten free options!),.  We stuffed ourselves good because we knew we would not be eating supper.  We got a great seat outside:

Afterwards we visited the wonderful gardens.  It was odd to see cosmos and dahlias blooming at the same time as sedum:

Then there was a sheep-sheering demonstration, we saw one like this in Patagonia last year:

Our favourite part was when he demonstrated how Kim the sheep-herding dog rounded up half a dozen sheep from way up the hillside, in one minute flat!  This kind of shepherding dog costs between $10 -15 thousand at auction.  They are preferred because they herd by stance rather than barking.

The TSS Earnslaw took us back to the Steamer Wharf, another 45 minutes.  The whole excursion lasted 4 hours.

Afterwards, we took our time and browsed some shops and bought a few souvenirs.  Mom - we got you something, we hope you like it!

Another lazy evening at the hotel.