New Zealand-- Milford Sound

This is my last blog post about our spring break trip to New Zealand.  Four is kind of a lot, but there was just too much beauty to capture in fewer posts.  If I didn't blog about it, these pictures would just be stored in my computer, along with the other thousands of pictures I have taken.  

Milford Sound is one of the places often listed as a 'Don't Miss' in the guide books I have read.  It is about four hours from Queenstown.  Plus the two-hour cruise on the sound itself.  That sounded like a lot of travel time to us, so we chose a different option-- bus ride there and helicopter back!

This is the reason we wanted to ride the bus there.  We made several picture stops along the way.  This was at Mirror Lake, so aptly named.

No, this picture is not upside down. 

This was another stop on the way.  Our bus driver encouraged us to fill our water bottles here.  It would be cleaner than what we could buy!  It was also interesting to see all the cloud formations in and around the mountains.  They seemed to change at every turn of the road.

This was in Fiorland National Park.

We passed many herds of cattle, sheep, and red deer!  I took this not-so-good picture of the cows just because in Malaysia and Oman most of the beef is from New Zealand.  I failed to get a picture of a herd, but deer are raised in captivity and most of the venison is exported to China.

The bus driver strongly recommended the venison pie in the pie shop in Te Anau.  I have to say, I have had venison in Texas and not been crazy about it.  But this venison pie was delicious!!  The meat was very tender and mild.  Just like beef.

Our cruise boat for the tour of Milford Sound.

You learn something new every day.  I learned the difference between a fiord and a sound.  A fiord is a valley carved by a glacier and a sound is a valley carved by a river.  When it meets the ocean, the valley is then filled.  Milford Sound is actually a fiord, but misnamed by the people that discovered it.

There were quite a few waterfalls.

This is where the 'sound' meets the Tasman Sea.

I finally had to put my camera away.  It was all so beautiful, but one can only get so many combinations of water, mountains, and clouds.  :)

Now for the fun part!  I have to tell you.  We were soooo glad not to be getting back on the bus.  The helicopter ride was worth the price!!  When you book the trip, the helicopter ride is contingent on weather conditions.  You never know till time to fly-- weather changes that quickly.  The plan was to land on a glacier on the way back to Queenstown.  Sometimes the weather could be fine enough to fly, but not to land on the glacier.  Thank goodness our weather was fine for both!

Lifting off!

You could see tips of mountains peeking through the clouds.

Let me tell you, walking around the top of that glacier on this beautiful day was one of the coolest feelings ever!

The whole trip back, including stopping on the glacier, took about 45 minutes.  Here we are, getting closer to Queenstown.

I thought we were going to land at the airport, but we landed just in a field.  There was a van to take us six passengers back to our hotels.  A truly glorious day!