From snow capped mountains, to ones covered with lush forest, and ferns, from beaches to farmland, the view continually changes as you make your way around.
while in Queenstown we made the day trip out to see Milford sound, a must do for anyone in the area.
it was a rainy overcasted day as we set out from Queenstown, though i think it helped make the sound more mystical and sureal, with the clouds and the mist hovering about.
As our tour guide pointed out, downpours during the summer months are not uncommon (av rain fall is 6m), which we found out all through out the day, seemingly every time it was time to step off the bus, the heavens decided to open!
which made for a wet but enjoyable day.
One of the first main stops of the day was at "The chasm," described as a gushing chasm of water, with a quaint bushwalk
as with most of the previous stops, it was sprinkling outside and many people opted to stay on the bus rather than venture out in the rain...
I on the other hand never let a spot of rain spoil and outing headed out on the bush walk to the chasm... (i suppose living in constant rain in the uk and scotland for the last 13months, has trained me well, though not well enough to pack wet weather gear!)
so i headed out with the other 10people who were not afraid of melting in the rain, and about 5 mins into the bush it starts to bucket down...
nice
we finally get to the chasm, and we were like is that it?
there was a lot of water gushing through...but there was more gushing down on us from above!
but it was fun and i loved all the greenery in the walk to and from it...
needless to say i got back on the bus a drowned rat, but i got my pictures!
From there we headed down to board the boat for our 2hour cruise out on milford sound.
as i said above, the mist and clouds gave for some surreal looking photos..
i'll let them do the talking
Here they took the boats right into the waterfall, it was hilarious watching all the asians run screaming from the top deck, having not understood the commentary saying you might get wet if you stayed at the front...
We go to see seals lounging on the rocks
and dolphins swimming along side
it cleared up a little towards the end of the cruise with the occasional ray of sunshine to be seen, and the odd patch of blue sky
It was funny, a few days before we headed down, one of the kiwi experience buses had caught fire and burnt down (everyone got off safely and no one was hurt, they just had a long wait to get back) but as we went down the winding road all that was left of the bus was the metal framework..
and being on the competitions bus, they took great delight in informing us many times of this fact!
it was a long day on the bus, leaving around 7am and arriving back in Queenstown 8pm...
but again well worth the effort, i wish i could have stayed longer and explored some of the many walking track on offer in the Fiordlands.
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