I’ll explain that picture in a moment.
Today’s adventure was a trip to Milford Sound.
We started with a close to four hour drive. Our driver (Hi Jim!). We stopped a couple of times including a quick stop tea (or coffee in my case, of course), and another for a brief tea again in Te Anau on the way to Fiordland National Park.
Photos simply don’t do any of today’s activities justice. (Thought that didn’t stop me from snapping over 300!). As always, click on the photos for larger versions – look for the “All Sizes” link on the Flickr page.
After driving through miles of scenic farms (sheep, beef cattle and deer), mountains and lakes, we eventually entered what’s termed a temperate rain forest. At the begining one scenic stop was “Mirror Lakes”, for obvious reasons you can see above.
The rainforest itself is not unlike the rain forest on Washington’s own coast. The photo above is very reminiscent of the Hoh River valley back home.
Milford Sound itself (actually a fjord, having been carved by glaciers, ice and rock) is gorgeous beyond words. The hour and a half boat trip out to the Tasmanian Sea and back was wonderful. The photo above is at the far end of the trip, looking back at the entry to Milford Sound.
Now, about getting back.
I’d chosen to drive out and fly back. The drive out was wonderful, as I said, but long, so flying back seemed like a great choice. What I expected was a small aircraft, what I wasn’t expecting was a Cessna.
And neither was Kathy. So on this celebratory trip not only did she fly in the largest aircraft ever (the A380 on the way over), but also now the smallest she’s ever been in – the Cessna 185 pictured at the top of the page.
The flight was only a little bumpy – flying over those same mountains we saw coming in will do that – and very quick. Within 45 minutes or so we were back on the ground in Queenstown.
All in all, another great day and adventure.
As always, more pictures at LeosPictures.com (be sure to click on “All Sizes” on each photo’s page at Flickr for larger versions.)
Welcome to my country. It appears that you are certainly enjoying yourselves, just as I enjoy your newsletters.
The last time I was down at Fiordland, was in 1990 & it certainly is spectacular!
My wife & I live in Masterton, North Island, & intend to visit Fiordland & surrounds in 2013.
You will wear your camera out with our scenery. LOL
Trevor
Are you kidding me???? I am so proud of Kathy! We are definitely going to have to get her in our plane, now!
Tell Kathy all she needs for the full flying experience is a ride in the backseat of a F/A-18 Super Hornet. I lived to tell about it. :->>>>
http://www.askthebuilder.com/Blue_Angels.shtml
> out to the Tasmanian Sea and back was wonderful.
That will be the Tasman Sea.
Tasmania is named after Abel Tasman
You were lucky, Leo, as it usually rains like hell at Milford Sound.
When we were there, it was monsoon like. However, it is quite spectacular when it rains, as the water cascades down the rocks from a thousand feet up, and so you get dozens of waterfalls.
The east coast of NZ gets as much rain as parts of India.