Scott and I just returned from a 5 day journey of the bottom half of the southern New Zealand island, traveling over 1100 miles. Boy did we see some spectacular sites, all of which couldn't hardly be captured well enough on camera or be put into words to adequately express the beauty of this country. Gotta say, you just gotta see it for yourselves. But we did our best with the camera, capturing a a couple series of panorama shots that I think give some good perspective. Check out the Picasa albums at the link below for all the pics.
We started in Christchurch heading south along the east coast spending our first night in Dunedin. We stayed at a hostel, interestingly called Hogwartz, that used to be an old bishop's quarters next to a church. We spent our afternoon and evening touring the city, drinking great beer at the local pubs and taking a tour of the oldest NZ brewery. Next we were off to Milford Sound. Spending day 2 traveling through Gore and back down along the beach and through Invercargill for a quick stop at their brewery. Then took an afternoon tour of the glow worm caves in Te Anau (so wish we could have captured that on camera but photos were not allowed.) Then made it to Milford Sound in time for bed and up the next morning for some mild hiking (tramping as its called here) and a cruise through the sound only to drive to Queenstown for the night. We took in the great shops, Saturday market, local gardens, and a few wineries before heading to Twizel for some shut eye and taking in the sites of Mt Cook on our last day before heading back to Christchurch. If Scott was doing this post I'm sure it would be complete with a map that you could link to. Sorry, I'm not going that far, I think the pics are interesting enough.
Besides all the breathtaking scenery, what surprised us the most is how much farmland there is. And its everywhere, no matter what the terrain. Cows and sheep seem to dot the landscape all over this country, adding to its picturesque nature. Being springtime there are baby lambs and cows everywhere, of course provoking lots of "how cute's" from me. Overall we had a blast taking in the sites and local food/beer/wine. Scott is flying down to the ice today, giving me ample time upload photos and update the blog. I'm hoping he has another couple days off in a row so we can jaunt up to Kaikora for the night and swim with some dolphins, stopping at wineries on our way, and likely on our way back as well :) It's good stuff around here and that says a lot coming from a Washington wine girl!
Check out the new albums from our travels in New Zealand below:
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