The great thing about being in a B and B is getting a home-cooked meal and that we did! After getting up and realizing it was cold because I hadn’t latched the door and it had blown open in the middle of the night, we headed out into the living room and had some yummy breakfast. Eggs, bacon, tomatoes, toast, mushrooms, yogurt, cereal, juice. YUM! We headed out about 9:20, got all packed up and headed back towards town. We had last minute planned a jet boat trip for the morning. We figured it would be nice to get out and since we only had an hour drive to Queenstown we had plenty of time.
We met downtown and we were taken a bit out of town to the river and the speed boat. We were having a great time when about 30 minutes in to our speed boat ride the boat decided to do something horrible and we had to pull over. Then the adventure was how to get us to a point where we could be picked up by the van. The thing about New Zealand is that everywhere off the roads is farmland. So we were on the river and in the middle of someone’s farm. It was a matter of getting us over fences and across streams; quite the adventure. We finally made it out, got back on the bus and were taken back to town. We had to wait for the person in charge to come back with info so she could refund us so we got hot chocolate and cake while we were waiting.
Then we were off to Queenstown. We got ourselves all checked in, had a bit of downtime an then walked into town. Queenstown has about 11,000 people in it and town is still small enough to walk around quite easily. The first order of business was the gondola (at least for Toshi) and then Luge at the top. We did the combo package and did 5 rounds of the luge! I wasn’t sure I was going to really like it but as Toshi commented, it’s controlled fun and I get to decide how fast I go. I didn’t really like the gondola but I faced uphill or outwards and as long as I didn’t look down I was ok. The luging was really fun and by the end I was almost as fast as Toshi but still not quite.
We then walked back into town and found this great place called Cow for dinner. We had read about it in a guide book and it sounded liked awesome Italian food. It’s on Cow Lane, which is a tiny alley like street. It was easy to find since we knew where it was but if you didn’t you would never find it. In the evenings because it gets busy, they share tables, so we started out having a couple across from us but as they had gotten there before us and their food came not too long after we sat down, they weren’t there for most of our meal. I had broccoli blue cheese soup, which was tasty and then a veggie pizza with tomatoes, zucchini, onion and all kinds of good things on it. Tasty!
We headed back to the hotel, watched a little more Lord of the Rings and then went to bed.
January 16th we left Queenstown early, as we had to be in Manapouri at 9:10 for our Doubtful Sound cruise. The drive was about 2 hours long and we left about 7. The hard part was when we got stuck behind a slow truck on the hills and windy sections but otherwise it was ok. The cruise itself was all day. Due to the location of Doubtful sound you actually have to take a boat and bus to get there. The boat goes across the lake, the there is about 45 minutes on the bus to the second boat where you spend most of the day.
On our first boat we had some people from Seattle sitting across from us. We talked to them a bit and that was nice. The crew told us about the lake and what our day would look like. We had picked up lunch before leaving the dock – nice boxed lunches. We talked with people about cameras and one of the guys we had talked to had told us about kayaking the day before on Milford and how it was kayaking the day before. He said that he had been with his family (they were sitting behind us) the day before and it had been snowing. While it was beautiful he said it was really cold. I did not think that sounded like fun and after that Toshi and I started talking about canceling our kayaking day and doing another cruise instead.
After the bus we got on to the second boat. We were at a table by ourselves (6+ person tables) and near the front of the boat so we could see a good number of things. We went out on the front deck to take some pictures and overall just really enjoyed being in the Fjordland. We learned the difference between a fjord and a sound – a fjord is something that used to be a glacier. As the glacier melted the space was filled up with water. A sound is something that used to be a river but was carved out and has now become a sound. Doubtful and Milford are actually fjords but they were named as sounds and so they have just left them that way.
The second boat was really the amazing part because it’s when we were actually on the Fjord itself. We were around on the boat for about 3 hours and it was incredible to see the scale of everything. The mountains are huge and it just makes you feel so small and insignificant. It was cold and windy but we were able to go out on the deck and take some photos. Toshi was out there for much longer than I was – I was worried about getting blown over! I was wearing many layers of clothing and was still cold. I have a feeling it was partially from the cold and wind and partially because I was sick and my temperature gets all messed up when I’m sick.
After a good three hours on the fjord we go back on the bus to make the journey back. One the way back instead of just going straight to the last boat the bus driver took us on a detour through the power plant that is there. There is a big long tunnel that is 2km long and we can’t remember how deep. The bus driver took us in there and we got to go inside the power plant, although now it’s all controlled remotely and people don’t really work there anymore except to check on things.
On the bus we made friends with Rebecca and Alex – they were sitting in front of us and we were playing the kill the sand flies game. We were squashing as many as we could and they were everywhere! We got to talking with them which was nice. They are just a couple of years older than we are and they are living in California but Alex is from Seattle and went to Roosevelt! It was fun meeting someone from Seattle. He actually knew a couple of people at GHS because he went to Hebrew school with them through middle school. We spent most of the bus ride talking to them, Toshi to Alex and me with Rebecca. He is in school at Berkley and she is a naturopath focusing mostly on health and nutrition. They actually know some people out on Long Island who are doctors and one who does a lot of prenatal type things. I have Rebecca’s email address and the name of some people I should contact – they are in Roslyn.
We got off the bus and on to the last boat – Rebecca and Alex came to find us and we chatted with them some more which was nice and it made the last boat ride go really fast. Before we knew it, it was time to get off the last boat. It was about 4:30 or so by this point. It had been a long and fantastic day on the fjord.
After getting off the last boat in Manapouri we drove to Te Anau to check in to our hotel. I was excited by the idea of being in the same place for two days as it is really tiring moving hotels every night.
We got all checked in and went to the grocery store to get some food. (Later we found out there was a larger grocery store but the small one was across the street so we went there) We decided since I wasn’t feeling well and it was easy that we would get quick things to make at the hotel. Toshi got a pineapple and cheese sandwich (he said it was gross I told him, what did you expect?) and we had some noodles and some other things. Always an adventure when you don’t have real silverware and the only things you can make are things that use hot water since we had a hot water pot. But since we had a fridge we had been able to get breakfast type things – yogurt for me and cereal for Toshi. I also got some bananas and Toshi, of course, got OJ.
We had a quiet night in and continued our Lord of the Rings trend. Due to the length of the movies it was taking us two nights to watch each one (and ended up taking three to watch the last one)
We met downtown and we were taken a bit out of town to the river and the speed boat. We were having a great time when about 30 minutes in to our speed boat ride the boat decided to do something horrible and we had to pull over. Then the adventure was how to get us to a point where we could be picked up by the van. The thing about New Zealand is that everywhere off the roads is farmland. So we were on the river and in the middle of someone’s farm. It was a matter of getting us over fences and across streams; quite the adventure. We finally made it out, got back on the bus and were taken back to town. We had to wait for the person in charge to come back with info so she could refund us so we got hot chocolate and cake while we were waiting.
Then we were off to Queenstown. We got ourselves all checked in, had a bit of downtime an then walked into town. Queenstown has about 11,000 people in it and town is still small enough to walk around quite easily. The first order of business was the gondola (at least for Toshi) and then Luge at the top. We did the combo package and did 5 rounds of the luge! I wasn’t sure I was going to really like it but as Toshi commented, it’s controlled fun and I get to decide how fast I go. I didn’t really like the gondola but I faced uphill or outwards and as long as I didn’t look down I was ok. The luging was really fun and by the end I was almost as fast as Toshi but still not quite.
We then walked back into town and found this great place called Cow for dinner. We had read about it in a guide book and it sounded liked awesome Italian food. It’s on Cow Lane, which is a tiny alley like street. It was easy to find since we knew where it was but if you didn’t you would never find it. In the evenings because it gets busy, they share tables, so we started out having a couple across from us but as they had gotten there before us and their food came not too long after we sat down, they weren’t there for most of our meal. I had broccoli blue cheese soup, which was tasty and then a veggie pizza with tomatoes, zucchini, onion and all kinds of good things on it. Tasty!
We headed back to the hotel, watched a little more Lord of the Rings and then went to bed.
January 16th we left Queenstown early, as we had to be in Manapouri at 9:10 for our Doubtful Sound cruise. The drive was about 2 hours long and we left about 7. The hard part was when we got stuck behind a slow truck on the hills and windy sections but otherwise it was ok. The cruise itself was all day. Due to the location of Doubtful sound you actually have to take a boat and bus to get there. The boat goes across the lake, the there is about 45 minutes on the bus to the second boat where you spend most of the day.
On our first boat we had some people from Seattle sitting across from us. We talked to them a bit and that was nice. The crew told us about the lake and what our day would look like. We had picked up lunch before leaving the dock – nice boxed lunches. We talked with people about cameras and one of the guys we had talked to had told us about kayaking the day before on Milford and how it was kayaking the day before. He said that he had been with his family (they were sitting behind us) the day before and it had been snowing. While it was beautiful he said it was really cold. I did not think that sounded like fun and after that Toshi and I started talking about canceling our kayaking day and doing another cruise instead.
After the bus we got on to the second boat. We were at a table by ourselves (6+ person tables) and near the front of the boat so we could see a good number of things. We went out on the front deck to take some pictures and overall just really enjoyed being in the Fjordland. We learned the difference between a fjord and a sound – a fjord is something that used to be a glacier. As the glacier melted the space was filled up with water. A sound is something that used to be a river but was carved out and has now become a sound. Doubtful and Milford are actually fjords but they were named as sounds and so they have just left them that way.
The second boat was really the amazing part because it’s when we were actually on the Fjord itself. We were around on the boat for about 3 hours and it was incredible to see the scale of everything. The mountains are huge and it just makes you feel so small and insignificant. It was cold and windy but we were able to go out on the deck and take some photos. Toshi was out there for much longer than I was – I was worried about getting blown over! I was wearing many layers of clothing and was still cold. I have a feeling it was partially from the cold and wind and partially because I was sick and my temperature gets all messed up when I’m sick.
After a good three hours on the fjord we go back on the bus to make the journey back. One the way back instead of just going straight to the last boat the bus driver took us on a detour through the power plant that is there. There is a big long tunnel that is 2km long and we can’t remember how deep. The bus driver took us in there and we got to go inside the power plant, although now it’s all controlled remotely and people don’t really work there anymore except to check on things.
On the bus we made friends with Rebecca and Alex – they were sitting in front of us and we were playing the kill the sand flies game. We were squashing as many as we could and they were everywhere! We got to talking with them which was nice. They are just a couple of years older than we are and they are living in California but Alex is from Seattle and went to Roosevelt! It was fun meeting someone from Seattle. He actually knew a couple of people at GHS because he went to Hebrew school with them through middle school. We spent most of the bus ride talking to them, Toshi to Alex and me with Rebecca. He is in school at Berkley and she is a naturopath focusing mostly on health and nutrition. They actually know some people out on Long Island who are doctors and one who does a lot of prenatal type things. I have Rebecca’s email address and the name of some people I should contact – they are in Roslyn.
We got off the bus and on to the last boat – Rebecca and Alex came to find us and we chatted with them some more which was nice and it made the last boat ride go really fast. Before we knew it, it was time to get off the last boat. It was about 4:30 or so by this point. It had been a long and fantastic day on the fjord.
After getting off the last boat in Manapouri we drove to Te Anau to check in to our hotel. I was excited by the idea of being in the same place for two days as it is really tiring moving hotels every night.
We got all checked in and went to the grocery store to get some food. (Later we found out there was a larger grocery store but the small one was across the street so we went there) We decided since I wasn’t feeling well and it was easy that we would get quick things to make at the hotel. Toshi got a pineapple and cheese sandwich (he said it was gross I told him, what did you expect?) and we had some noodles and some other things. Always an adventure when you don’t have real silverware and the only things you can make are things that use hot water since we had a hot water pot. But since we had a fridge we had been able to get breakfast type things – yogurt for me and cereal for Toshi. I also got some bananas and Toshi, of course, got OJ.
We had a quiet night in and continued our Lord of the Rings trend. Due to the length of the movies it was taking us two nights to watch each one (and ended up taking three to watch the last one)
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