The road to Milford was as spectacular as we thought it would be. Soaring mountains, low clouds and peaceful valleys all added up to a glorious day out. We decided against another scenic cruise, Milford itself was much busier than Doubtful Sound, a purpose built harbour and at least four operators all added to the impression that there would be less sense of peace and tranquility on the water. As Milford Sound is less than half the length Doubtful I think we made the correct decision.
After three nights in the B&B we left for Wanaka. Although the B&B was good quality the impression we both had was that the landlady's heart really wasn't in it, we discovered on the last morning that she had been trying to sell up for two years. Slightly disorganised and amateurish covers it.
The drive to Wanaka meant retracing steps to Queenstown. Sue drove most of the way but we changed just before Queenstown and rove over to Wanaka using the Crown Range road. This is about half the distance of using the major roads but involves hairy hairpins and sheer drops before reaching the highest tarmac'd road in NZ. A difficult drive took us to Wanaka via old gold mining country round Cardrona.
The B&B outside Wanaka was very luxurious and more like a small private hotel with 7 rooms. I'd like to say what Wanaka is like but in reality we both flopped at the B&B, just leaving it long enough to have a pub meal - meant to be a small one as the meals are catching up on us, portions were still too large.
Today we have driven to Fox Glacier, a tiny village resembling a Western two horse town. The Westhaven Motel is adequate but the real reason to be here is to view the glacier. We've done a short walk and seen it in the distance but have booked a helicopter flight and landing on snow for tomorrow morning. We had hoped to do a hike on the snow but my knee is not up to it. Hopefully we'll have lots of photos from the flight.
No photos on this post as the internet connection is slow
No comments:
Post a Comment