Sarah and I decided we really haven’t had enough of the Sunny, and we’ve put quite a lot of distance on it in the past few days!
On the day of our kayak tour and for a few days before, Milford Sound (the other famous Sound in Fiordland National Park) had been closed due to a rock slide. It reopened on our day out, so for lack of nice short hikes in Te Anau (pronounced Tea-ahnu for the curious), we decided to drive 2 1/2 hours north to Milford Sound and back.
The drive was scenic, but there were about 20 tour buses laden with tourists on the road with us!
We were fortunately able to stop at more places than the buses could go, and at one particular scenic view, we were joined by a curious Kea I named Hoppy Pete. Kea are mountain parrots, and are known to be really curious…they take a lot of stuff (like passports, windshield wipers, and lunches) and also kill the occasional sheep. Hoppy Pete was quite the ham, and we were able to get some nice shots and didn’t even have to let him nibble on our tires or windshield wipers. Success!
The Sound was really pretty, of course, but this one was more easily accessible than Doubtful was, and therefore a ton busier. There were tour boats and helicopters aplenty, and after a quick walk around the shores and some snacks, we decided to head back.
After that, it was two more hours to Queenstown. It was vaguely reminiscent of the Dells, except it was full of kiwis, cute houses, and much smaller lodges. We stopped for breakfast at a cute little cafe called Halo. American cafes are vastly inferior to the cafes here. There’s always a wide range of tasty hot food you can order, from light snacks to full meals.
I had delicious hot blackurrant juice and french toast with nanners, and Sarah got a poached egg on biscotti from a cute little cafe called Halo. Ahh, it was so good! I’ve got a picture…somewhere.
At this point, Sarah decided the blisters from kayaking had gotten the best of her, so we went off in search of a pharmacy. We found the first aid section all by ourselves, and even managed to find the band-aids (plasters here!). However, we couldn’t find the antiseptic…so we had to ask the helpful pharmacy lady. Helpful Pharmacy Lady asked what we needed the antiseptic for. Sarah showed off her thumbs. Helpful Pharmacy Lady was totally shocked.
Anyway, we got our iodine stuff and managed to open it. We were nearly unable to open it, but between the two of us and our Zelda-playing experience, we managed to align the weird triangle shape on the bottle opening and the cap and there was antiseptic!!
From Queenstown, we drove on to Franz Josef (four and a half hours, but my atlas said six. I don’t know if the atlas lies or I’m just a wild driver) (I AM A GOOD DRIVER), stopping for pictures in Mount Aspiring National Park and along the Tasman Sea. There were a lot of one-way bridges, roads, and curvey mountain bits. The Sunny dominated ALL OF IT!!
Today, we did two hikes: one quick walk around Lake Matheson (which, on a clear day, has a view of Mount Cook. Alas, today was not a clear day), and a longer hike on the Fox Glacier. The Fox Glacier is New Zealand’s third largest, and it ends amongst the rainforest.
It was pretty awesome! The ice has been receding since 2008, so we had to hike quite a ways to get to it. Some parts of it looked a bit like a Minnesota parking lot snow mountain come February, but we saw lots of blue ice, our guide was cute, and I learned how to walk in crampons.
Afterwards, we got milk shakes, hokey pokey ice cream (didn’t have enough ice for one day), and tasty garlic bread.
Tomorrow, we leave really early to make it to a brewery tour at 10:30 AM up in Greymouth, and then partake of their fabulous foods! Then, it’s off to relaxing in Punakaiki. Yeah beach!