The Swanson's New Zealand Trip

Queenstown: 18-21 May

Queenstown is a major gateway to some of the best recreation on the South Island. In the summer it is boating, tramping (hiking), and other outdoor sports. Then in the winter the focus most definitely shifts to skiing, and in a big way. We arrived in Queenstown the week before ski season opened, and everyone was watching the mountains (and the weather) as though their livlihood depended on snow—and in many cases it does...

To get to Queenstown, we had to board yet another InterCity coach in Fox Glacier and spend the day enroute to Queenstown. If you look on the map, the two places aren't that far apart. It seems that someone put these very tall mountains between the two, which requires the road to make a somewhat circuitious route. But it wasn't without interest and the day went quite quickly.

Upon arriving in Queenstown we were lodged in the Copthorne Lakefront Resort, a very nice, if somewhat pretentious, hotel a ten minute walk from downtown Queenstown. We spent three nights in Queenstown, one day of which was completely at our leisure, and the other at (or to be more precise, transiting to and from) Milford Sound.

Queenstown, as mentioned above, is a resort town and had an abundance of places to eat, shop, and visit. We took the tram to the top of the mountain, watched the steamboat, ate Dim Sum and sushi, shopped (yes, even Sandi shopped!), and generally had a wonderful time. Oh yeah, we even did laundry.

The Milford Sound trip was interesting! Our coach picked us up at 7 A.M. and required five-and-one-half hours to get to Milford Sound. Once there we boarded the Red Boat for a 90-minute on-water tour, following which we boarded our coach for another five-and-one-half hours to return to Queenstown. It was interesting only because our driver, Nyall, showed a phenomenal sense of humor and kept us thoroughly entertained the whole time.

The boat trip on Milford Sound was very scenic (even in bucketing rain), but the Red Boat people run a rotten organization. All of the inside seating was reserved for tour groups (we were not on a "tour"), so we had to spend the entire 90-minutes on the fantail of the boat—in the rain & wind. We were not happy campers and would highly recommend to all that you do NOT take the Red Boat in Milford Sound!!!

The next morning we again boarded an early InterCity coach, this time bound for Christchurch.

The "thumbnails" following this narrative are a select subset of our Queenstown/Milford Sound images. They may be "enlarged" by clicking on them with your mouse pointer. Enjoy!

Tasman Sea coastline near Jacobs River	Tasman Sea (Can you say: California Highway 1, or the Road to Hana?)	Our Queenstown-bound coach	Our lunch stop (kidney pie anyone?)	"Photo op" @ Thunder Creek Falls
Thunder Creek Falls	Another "photo op" (and a one-lane bridge)	Gates of Haast	We seem to have picked up a hitchiker...	Eating Dim Sum in Queenstown
Fourteen pieces of Sushi for NZ$8 (about US$3) YESS!	Queenstown's Lake Wakatipu	Steamboat on Lake Wakatipu	Bet it gets good mileage???	Queenstown Tram
Tramway going UP!	Queenstown from the top of the tramway (raining like crazy)	Sunrise on the Remarkable Mountains outside Queenstown	On the coach to Milford Sound	What's that white stuff?
Stretch break for a...	...snowball fight. Near Homer Tunnel	Approaching the Homer Tunnel (about 3,000 meters altitude)	Milford Sound	The Red Boat... do not use!!!
Milford Sound	Milford Sound	Milford Sound: rainbow & waterfalls	Milford Sound: Wind blowing waterfall	Milford Sound