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| Week 7: Routeburn Track and Milford Sound |
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| So we embarked on the 3 day Routeburn Track. We chose the guided option, as we didn't fancy carry sleeping bags around with us for the whole trip, and the thought of hot showers and 3 course meals at the end of a day's hiking was too much to resist! |
| The walking was challenging but not too strenuous, and the views were first-class. we were very lucky- it rained both nights we were on the trek, but the days remained dry. |
| Our group was made up of 22- fifteen from Japan. We even learned some Japanese words- I hope we get to use them one day before we forget them! We also had a Dutch couple on their honeymoon, two Danish girls and a girl from Israel. |
| This is one of the kea birds who would visit us in our huts- obviously been fed before! |
| The last day was easy walking through the meadows on the river valley, and to lunch at this water hole- it was freezing, but that didn't stop one of our group diving in for a swim- crazy! |
| And these are our 3 guides who had to suffer our company for 3 days! |
| On our return to Queenstown we collected another car and headed for Te Anau, where we enjoyed our 4 wheel motorbike trip. This was brilliant- tearing around in muddy fields, through swamps, and even doing jumps. The scenery was great, and even afternoon tea thrown in - highly recommended! |
| Our kayaking trip to Milford Sound was a washout- so we went on a big boat instead- the views were spectacular, especially the waterfalls, which were full of the 60mm of rain that had just fallen. The road to Milford is one of the highlights of the trip, with the famous rock tunnel- very scary when you enter a see a set of lights coming down towards you- if it's a bus one of you has to go back- it's not wide enough for 2 wide vehicles and there's no pull ins. |
| We finished our New Zealand adventures with a White water sledging trip , basically going down a river with grade 3-4 rapids on a piece of plastic! This was a big adrenaline rush, but not as scary as we thought, although one big rapid, "The Man Eater" lived up to its name! |
| Singapore-Melbourne Tasmania Sydney-Ayers Rock-Kings Canyon (big cities and great coasts) (devils, koalas and roos) (operas, bridges and big rocks) Alice Springs-Cairns New Zealand North Island NZ South Is. Kaikoura-Queenstown (reptiles and fishy stuff) (big balls and gas masks) (dolphins 'n' ice) Routeburn Track-Milford Sound Honolulu-Hawaii Volcanoes NP Maui-San Francisco (mountains, waterfalls and 4 wheels) (Volcanoes and Active Lava Flow) (beaches, bridges and prisons) |
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