Tuesday, September 30, 2025
This morning we took a taxi to the Queenstown Airport to rent a car. We left at 9:30 to drive 165 km/103 miles to Te Anau in the foothills of New Zealand's Southern Alps. We arrived at noon, in time to rescue our room reservation since credit card payment was denied. We had booked hotels in February, using our old credit card number, and the hotel waited until yesterday to charge us.
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We had a room at Lakewood Lofts, but shared reception
with the Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers' Hostel |
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| Lakewood Lofts bathroom |
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| Lake Te Anau was across the street |
We first went to cancel our excursion to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves, which would be too difficult for me to negotiate with crutches. Our only consolation was that we had already seen glowworms!
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Lunch at Lakefront Café, sharing a bacon and egg butty
(a butty is a sandwich)... |
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| ...and a seafood chowder with garlic bread |
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
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After rain yesterday, we were lucky to have a beautiful
sunny day with snow-covered mountains seen behind
Lake Te Anau, New Zealand's second largest lake |
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| More snow-covered mountains |
We drove and parked at Kiwi Country Café to wait for the motor coach for the Milford Sound Full-Day Tour from Te Anau. What we did not realize was that the tour actually started in Queenstown, and most of the passengers had already traveled 2.5 hours! They had a rest stop, and then ten more of us boarded the bus. Because I was on crutches, we were given the front seat!
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| Heading to the Southern Alps and Milford Sound (KSS) |
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Notice the plush bird on the dashboard, a
Strigops habroptilus/Kākāpō/Owl Parrot,
which is an endangered large flightless parrot |
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| Our first stop was the glacial moraine... (KSS) |
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...well, a glacier carved this valley and nature has taken over;
but most people took advantage of getting off the bus (KSS) |
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This was our completely full motor coach; we also learned
how lucky we were in that this tour occurred today,
since it had been cancelled the last two days due to
avalanches closing the road and all tours were cancelled;
thus most of the people were rebooked for today |
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Trees have a tenuous hold on the mountains
and you often see bare patches where a group
of trees have lost their hold and slid down (KSS) |
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Our second stop was at Mirror Lake, a short walk
on a boardwalk of which Kent took advantage (KSS) |
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| Mirror Lake (KSS) |
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Lichen and mosses
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| Bird nest (KSS) |
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| There is a waterfall next to the "landslide" (KSS) |
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| Waterfall (KSS) |
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| The road follows the Eglinton River |
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A permanent waterfall (versus waterfalls
that are created by snow melt and/or rain) (KSS) |
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Nestor notabilis/Kea/Alpine Parrot is said to
have the intelligence of a four-year old, or a
seven-year old Australian...
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A third stop at Monkey Creek, with fresh cold water
from the mountains, and we were encouraged to
fill our water bottles (KSS) |
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| So many tourists, including busloads of Chinese (KSS) |
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| Do not feed the kea! (KSS) |
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| Canoodling kea (KSS) |
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We were to thank the Milford Road maintenance crew
for clearing the roads after the avalanches (KSS) |
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A massive snow bowl; if it were raining,
there would be waterfalls everywhere (KSS) |
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| Entering Homer Tunnel (1935-1954) |
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| The tunnel is 1.27 km/0.8 of a mile long |
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| Traffic lights are needed to control the one-way flow |
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| There were avalanche signs in several areas (KSS) |
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We are in the Southern Alps with hanging glaciers,
and it is sunny on his side, too! |
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| Milford Sound tour boat |
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As seen in the boat photo, Mitre Peak (named due to
its resemblance to a bishop's hat) is the most significant
mountain on Milford Sound at 2,621 m/8,599' |
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Although there was a buffet on the ship,
our tour included a picnic lunch |
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There are several waterfalls; note
the size of the boat below the falls (KSS) |
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Milford Sound is a fiord, and we are
in Fiordland National Park (KSS) |
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| Snow-covered mountains (KSS) |
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| Pixie and Fairy Falls (KSS) |
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| A hostess came around to take our photo |
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| The sound ends (or begins?) at the Tasman Sea (KSS) |
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| At a wider spot we can see the snow-covered mountains (KSS) |
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Heading back through the narrowest point
that is 560 m/1,837' wide (KSS) |
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Arctocephalus forsteri/Kekeno/New Zealand Fur Seal;
we also saw the Eudyptes pachyrhynchus/
Tawaki/Fiordland crested penguin (KSS) |
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Bowen Falls is a permanent waterfall and the
tallest in Milford Sound at 162 m/531' (KSS) |
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| The pointed peak is Mitre Peak |
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And so the two-hour cruise came to an end, and
we had a two-hour drive back to Te Anau (no stops) (KSS) |
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Today we departed at 7:15 to drive back to the Queenstown Airport and dropped off the rental car. We had a 13:05 flight back to Christchurch, then a 17:05 flight to Sydney, Australia, which took three hours and 40 minutes. Because of the two-hour time difference, we should have arrived in Sydney at 16:45, but the flight was delayed an hour. Colin was there to pick us up at the airport and I was taken in a wheelchair right to the car. Thanks to Sharon, we had a scrumptious dinner of Moroccan stew with quinoa and green beans.
Friday, October 3, 2025
Today's activity was to go to the emergency room at the closest hospital, where I had x-rays and lab work, but most importantly, I received a prescription for pain medication, to ease the 14-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. Kent had to use Colin's phone to contact Delta Airlines, and we were able to change our departure to tomorrow, four days ahead of schedule. It means we will miss going to Canberra, the capital of Australia.
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Colin and Sharon had us eat breakfast, then drove us to the Sydney Airport for our 9:25 flight to Los Angeles, arriving at 6:15 (but it is still October 4th!). At 8:35 we had a four-hour 20-minute flight to Atlanta, arriving at 15:58. Finally the two-hour flight to Philadelphia departed at 17:55, arriving at 19:53. Brynne picked us up, and we were home by 21:00. A total of 25 hours in transit.
In many ways this was the best of trips, and it was also the worst of trips!
NB: I had a left total hip replacement surgery on 11/18/2025.
