We popped on down to the south island of New Zealand for 5 days. Our flight from Auckland to Queenstown only took 1.5 hours. We picked up our rental car at the airport and set out to find our hotel located across from lake Wakatipu. Lake Wakatipu is the longest lake in New Zealand stretching 50 miles and is the third largest lake in the country. The lake is surrounded by snowcapped mountains as far as the eye can see.
Fergburger is a much talked about burger place in Queenstown. CNN even did a story suggesting they are the best burgers on the planet! We wasted little time after checking into our hotel to set out on foot and find it. There was a bit of a wait, which is normal sometimes lasting up to one hour. We took our burgers, fries, and onion rings over to Perky’s. A bring-your-own-food bar located on a boat. We ordered a few drinks from the bar and ate our meal. It was definitely up there with the best burgers we have had. The surroundings didn’t hurt either.
With our bellies stuffed we headed out to explore Queenstown. Queenstown is an adventure junkies paradise. They have everything from bungy jumping to jet boats, skydiving, hang gliding and parasailing. The city is a ski town in the winter and extreme sports in the summer with people from all over the world flocking to see it. We checked out some of the local shops and then hung out by the lake for a while before heading back to our hotel.
In the morning we took a journey down the lake on the T.S.S. Earnslaw, an old steamship built in 1912. The boat was incredible. Luckily we were able to secure a few seats out on the deck since it was a beautiful day. The scenery around the lake was spectacular. After a while we headed inside, and were able to visit the middle of the ship where the engine room was located. It was really fun watching the stoker shovel coal into the furnaces.
We disembarked the steamship at the Walter Peak High Country Farm. We opted for the farm tour and group tea. Our Farmer, Al, first lead us to an amphitheater where he showed us how he shears a sheep. He told us that he can sheer over 300 sheep in a day and that the NZ government has a minimum rate of $2.20 per sheep. After that Al sent his sheep dog Kim up into the hills to roundup a few sheep. Kim bounded up the steep hill with ease and in now time had several sheep heading down into the pens below. Next we went around to see the animals. Besides sheep the farm had deer, yaks, Alpaca and goats. Both of the boys were great helpers by holding the food bucket for everyone and feeding the animals. They liked the goats best. Before our boat came back to pick us up we got to have our afternoon tea. It was really nice with all kinds of teas as well as desserts like scones, cookies and cakes. On the way back a lady played the piano while people sang old timey songs. It was a great boat ride that all of us enjoyed.
Once back on shore we got our rental car from the hotel and headed off on a 2 hour drive to Te Anau. It was a beautiful drive. Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in New Zealand and the largest on the South island. We checked into our motel, grabbed some dinner at a local restaurant and then walked around town a bit. There was a park close by that had a flying fox zipline. Everybody tried it out. Even Cooper was brave enough to try it once.
Milford sound was a memorable day. We woke up early and left by 7:30am. Although the drive was only 100 kilometers, it took about 2 hours to get to the sound. The trip along the road was an adventure. At one stop, our car got attacked by two Kea birds. If you have not read about them, they are huge, very intelligent alpine parrots.
After surviving the bird attack, we continued driving. It was a beautiful windy road and Chelsea started feeling a little sick. The boys were watching their iPads, and all of a sudden Mason got really sick. Luckily we were close to a rest area. All of the twists and turns on the mountain roads had made him very motion sick. We stopped, cleaned him up, and walked around until we all started feeling better. We drove through the Homer Tunnel. A single lane tunnel going through the heart of a mountain. There was a stoplight on each side of the mountain signaling when it was your sides turn to go.
Finally, we arrived at Milford. Besides a small airport, and an information center, there isn’t much but the ferry terminal. We paid for parking and then went to get our tickets for the boat. Our cruise left at 10:30 with Southern Discoveries. The boat was very nice. The nature guide had great commentary and showed us a penguin and the seals, dipped us under the waterfalls, and explained a lot about the fjord. Milford Sound was carved out by the erosion of ancient glacial ice. It is one of the rainiest areas on earth, but we lucked out with a crisp but sunny morning. The number of waterfalls varies depending on the rain conditions. Only a few waterfalls are permanent, but after rainy days there can be hundreds of them. The waterfalls are often called “liquid sunshine” by the locals. Check out the video below to understand why.
After about 1.5 hours of cruising, we disembarked at the underwater observatory. Here we learned more about the coral and animals that live in the fjord. We walked down a curvy staircase under the water to observe fish, 11 armed starfish, coral, and sperm.
We caught another boat back to the port, and then began our drive back to Te Anu. Our only stop was at Mirror Lakes. On a calm day the lake reflects everything around it perfectly in the water. Unfortunately it was windy but it was still worth the stop. One other cool thing we saw was the 45 degrees south sign marking half way between the equator and the South Pole. This alone was cool but the other neat thing is that the 45 degree north sign is close to our home in Minnesota.
We returned to our hotel exhausted from our long but amazing day.
The next morning we made the long drive back to Queenstown. Because the kids loved it so much in Rotarua and because it was highly recommend, we took the sky ride up to the mountain overlooking Queenstown. The views were picturesque. This time we each took two rides down the Luge. We finally caved and purchased the photo package that they have been trying to sell. The views were just too spectacular. It looked like there was a green screen, but it was just the beauty of the area.
We had a unfortunate incident with a hotel that would not allow us to have 4 people in a hotel room. They wanted us to pay a significant amount more to upgrade to a family suite. Instead we insisted on a refund and took our business elsewhere. That meant finding a last minute hotel room. Luckily, we found a great room at the Sherwood Queenstown. The next day we had a wonderful breakfast, and caught our flight back to Auckland. It was quite a trip!
