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New Zealand's South Island is a beautiful land featuring mountains, sheep, fiords, glaciers, rain, and really obnoxious biting Sand Flies.  We were very fortunate in that the weather was generally good during our visit.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After arriving in Queenstown, we drove to Te Anau (Gateway to Fiordland National Park).  Fiordland features Milford Sound where we took an overnight cruise on the Milford Wanderer.

  • Milford Sound opens to the Tasman Sea and is primarily salt water, though the extremely high rainfall (giving rise to the beech-treed temperate rain forest) creates a 1-4 meter layer of tannic water at the surface.  This water dramatically attenuates the amount of light that makes it to the depths.  There is, therefore, very little life deep in the sound.

  • The sides of the sound are so steep (picture Yosemite with Trees) that there are occasional tree avalanches when one tree will zipper downhill trees right off the side of the fiord.

  • The Mountain Kea is a popular, playful, and destructive native parrot.

  • Fiordland National Park is a part of the massive World Heritage Area comprising much of the SW coast.

    • Fiordland's biting Sand Flies were the worst we found anywhere in New Zealand.

- Mountain in Fjordland

 

- Milford Sound

- Peak at Harrison Cove

- Hanging Valley & Waterfall at Fjordland

- Diane on Tasman Sea

 

- Tree Avalanche

 

- Mountain Kea

 


After Fiordland we drove back to Queenstown and embarked on the Dart River Jet Boat Safari.  This trip takes you 33 km up the Dart River to the boundary of Mount Aspiring National Park.  These boats can run in 4" of water at 75 kph using their Hamilton Jet Drive and an 8 liter Chevy V8 and still turn on a dime.  Much Fun!

 

Next up was Franz Josef glacier.  The weather prevented a helicopter ride onto the glacier, but the half-day hike was excellent.  For scale notice Diane and Albert at the bottom of the waterfall picture (right).

The rest of the trip involved:

  • Cave "Rafting" in Graymouth.  The glowworms were fascinating, but do the trip at Waitomo instead.

  • Sea Kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park.  This was great fun and the Cleopatra Pool was very interesting.

  • Shopping and touring the geothermal features at Rotorua.  If you've been to Yellowstone, you should skip Rotorua because it'll be VERY disappointing.

Finally, while New Zealand DOES have a LOT of sheep, there are also deer, cattle, and goats.  They also have a huge Opossum problem that they've tried to fix with rifles, poisons, and possum-viruses.  Unfortunately, the population is increasing at 30% per year.

- Franz Josef Glacier

 

- Looking Impressive

 

- Blue Ice Tunnel

 

- Waterfall

 

- At the Albert Mall in Greymouth

 

- Red Deer