Friday 30th November – Day in Queenstown

Alpacas are cute....

It was a lovely bright morning. Being animal welfare experts, we noticed that the alpacas in a field right next to the campsite were getting all the love and all of the food from the other campers. We paid them a quick visit but saved all of our snacks for the sheep over the other side of the farm on our way out. 

......But so are these ladies!

Above and below - views along Lake Wakatipu heading back towards Queenstown

We got into Queenstown for lunchtime. In a complete contrast to last night’s campsite, today we found ourselves in what would probably be the most overcrowded campsite of our trip.  But it was very convenient for both the town and getting to the gondola, which we could see from our pitch (below): 

The gondola station high above our camp spot

View  as we headed up in the gondola

The afternoon’s activities consisted of a ride up on the gondola to enjoy panoramic views of the town and the surrounding countryside before enjoying the luge.   

Panoramic view over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu

1,2,3 say luuuuuge!

The luge was great fun, with two different tracks, the only decision was how much of a head start to give Becks to make it a fair race!  

I celebrated the experience by having my first taste of hokey pokey ice-cream. Basically, vanilla ice-cream with chewy pieces of caramel throughout that get stuck in your teeth. It was okay but hasn’t risen to the top of my favourites. 

 

On the way out of the gondola we took a last-minute diversion into the NZ Wildlife park where we had only 30 minutes to do a speed-tour before closing – but this included the chance to see kiwi up close! I don’t think I could ever do too many visits into their nocturnal world. Once your eyes have adjusted to the darkness the way they stomp around their enclosures to forage for food is enchanting and like watching nothing else so I was glad that Becks got a chance to see them.  There were a couple of my other favourites there too – like kea generally being as entertaining as ever. 

Becks giving a demonstration of the scale of the Haast Eagle - a sadly extinct massive NZ raptor

 

We then went for an unexpected people-watch at iFly – the indoor skydiving centre, where we saw a newly-trained couple taken for a couple of ‘flights’.  As someone with fear of heights and falling from them this may potentially be the only way that I could ever get to feel the sensation of freefalling. But I’ll have to wait until the prices come down a notch before that happens. 

Queuing for our Fergburger

We returned to the camper to freshen up and have some pre-night-out-drinkies. This would be our big night out of the trip. Being sensible it was important to line our stomachs sufficiently with a trip to the legendary Fergburger (right). We sat and watched the staff on the production conveyor belt as they dealt with the usual large volume of orders.  How they make the burgers taste so good is still a mystery to me!

End to a top night - Espresso martini cocktails and Super Simon!

We then took in a couple of bars, ending at our favourite one of the night that was serving happy hour espresso martini cocktails and supplied entertainment at the tables.  Our game of choice for the evening was a ‘Super Simon’. Who remembers one of these?!? 

Thursday 29th November – Milford Sound & Fjordland National Park

Luckily the day dawned more brightly and without any bugs which gave us an opportunity to enjoy the view of Lake Te Anau from our campsite that we’d missed last night:

Then it was back on the road into Fjordland National Park to see as many features as possible on the way in – including the Mirror lakes, lupins, waterfalls and snow-capped mountains.  

Some mountains and lupins for you....

 

Mirror lake selfie

That'd be the mirror lakes

Nearing Milford Sound, we were at the front of the queue going through the Homer tunnel. I was getting annoyed with a driver right up behind me, so I pulled over in the first lay-by after we exited the tunnel. A wise choice it turned out. As soon as we’d stopped an inquisitive Kea spotted us and made a bee-line towards us across the road. I could barely watch, worried that by us stopping we were going to get an endangered bird run over. Thankfully not, we just enjoyed the kea getting up close and personal, it even made an attempt to hop up onto the camper’s window at one point.  

A beautiful friendly Kea

 

Our approach to the harbour at Milford Sound

Despite all our stopping, we still made it to the cruise terminal in plenty of time for our Encounter Nature tour.   

 

We had booked this company on purpose as they promised the focus of the cruise would be on the wildlife and they didn’t disappoint.  Whilst all the other tour boats whisked past us to the end of the sound just to turn around again, our guides took us in close to the shore to get a glimpse of one of the rarest penguins in the world that just happened to be roosting at the moment – Fjordland crested penguins.

And we hung around to watch them for as long as we were able before heading back past the beautiful scenery spotting seals and birds as we went. I tried hard not to take as many photographs as I did the first time I visited, but that’s a tough ask when you’re somewhere as stunning as Milford sound! 

Sleepy seals

We were steared right underneath one of the waterfalls

Massive cruise liner in the Sound for scale

Mitre Peak is the highest one in this photograph

As we’d done a lot of stopping off on the way in, the drive back was less eventful, apart from the beautiful rainbows across the landscape.  

The aim was to make good ground towards Queenstown that evening to leave only a short drive for the next day.  I did some research whilst in the passenger seat and found a unique campsite with some of the best reviews I’d ever read. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere but with the added appeal that there were lots of animals and visitors were encouraged to feed and pet them. We got there just before sunset, so we’ll leave some time for that in the morning.