I've made my way from Queenstown southwards. I left Queenstown yesterday after being there for a day. I stayed in a campsite and I honestly felt like it was a 'pack-them and rack-them' deal. Literally there was 2 feet between each camper van. Queenstown is basically the epi-centre of activities in the south. It's surrounded by Bungee jumps, paragliding, skydiving, luges (which I want to go on if the weather is good) and any other adrenaline type of activity you want. They also have coach tours to the Southlands such as Milford Sound and the Fiordlands. Since I'm driving there's no point in me using those trips!
After leaving Queenstown I was really surprised. I left on the SR-6 road and the scenery changed very dramatically. Queenstown is set up in a valley and it has very sharp peaked mountains surrounding it. A very beautiful location and it's obvious why it's popular with tourists. Anyway, as you start heading south you follow the lake out. On the outskirts there's a lot of volcanic outcrops/mountains - I don't know what the proper geological name is. Anyway they are very shear and have ridges down them. Similar to California but more pronounced. They merge onto the lakes and have trees growing in the ridges. I know Mum would love these views! Hopefully the pictures will do more justice than my description.
Today I'm in Te Anau which is the start of the Fiordlands. It's Sunday and I'm hanging out waiting for a trip to one of the Glow Worm caves. I've got a fair amount of time to kill so I'm going to read my book after finishing this blog entry and photo editing session. I plan on doing a Kayaking adventure on Tuesday Morning in the Milford Sound. Hopefully I'll be able to also do a boat trip into the sound itself (I'm not sure if the Kayaking goes the same route so I'll find out tomorrow or the next day.
I have to admit after leaving Queenstown, I now feel like this is the New Zealand that I wanted to see and expected to see. It's just very stunning scenery and it's really hard to describe and I'm sure my photos will not do justice. Hopefully when I get better access to the internet I'll be able to upload some of my videos.
I'm also trying to adjust to the Time here since we've just flicked over to Winter Savings Time (it's all topsy turvey down here!). I think the difference to the UK is now +11 hours. I don't know when Summer Time begins in the UK so that may confuse me as well!
Franz Josef Glacier
Me at Frans Josef Glacier
Fox Glacier
Looking back at Queenstown
A Fiord just South of Queenstown
Lake Te Anau with Te Anua on the peninsula
Looking over the lakes south of Queenstown
BTW all of these photos are available on my Flickr site with higher resolution sizes availble. Please obey the Creative-commons licensing by giving me credit for them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16453589@N02/
