QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND
(New Zealand Flag)
(Map of New Zealand)
All of the images below are thumbnails and can be clicked on for a larger image.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2007:
After arriving in Queenstown I road the Skyline Gondola for nice views of The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu.
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Hello everybody, I'm back online again. Two nights in a row I was cut off from the outside world. Today I traveled some 260 kilometers traveling from Haast to Queenstown. It was a very scenic drive all the way full off mountains, lakes, waterfalls, gorges and rivers. Queenstown is a nice little town although quite busy. Impossible to find a place to park. Have a spectacular view of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Mountains from my hotel room. The only thing that I did today besides get here is the Skyline Gondola. The attached picture is from the top of the gondola here in Queenstown. Until tomorrow, Tim |
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007:
This was probably the most disappointing day of the trip, my journey to Milford Sound.
The weather down and back was not bad, but the weather at Milford Sound was awful.
You couldn't even see Mitre Peak and the other beautiful mountains surrounding the sound.
I was also supposed to fly back but beacuse of the weather it was another LONG five hours back to Queenstown.
6 minute video of journey to Milford Sound. Click on the �YouTube player below to watch the video. | ||
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Hello Everyone, Today was by far the worst day of the trip. Today I traveled down to Milford Sound, the place I most wanted to see here in New Zealand. I went down by motor coach so I could fly back. We left Queenstown at 7:00am this morning. Weather was decent when we left town but by the time we got to the rugged mountain scenery you could see very little through the clouds and rain. When we got to Milford Sound for the boat cruise the weather got even worse. The two hour cruise was totally pointless, we might as well have stayed tied to the dock, the scenery would have been the same. Needless to say after the cruise was over the planes weren't flying because of the weather so it was another five hours on the bus to get back to Queenstown. A very disappointing day. Since I didn't take one picture worth looking at down there. Five minutes ago I snapped a shot from my hotel window to attach to today's email. Of course the weather is beautiful here. Tomorrow's another day, hopefully better, Tim |
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2007:
On and off showers on Saturday kind of hampered my planned activities.
I spent the day in and around Queenstown.
It was fun watching folks far braver than I jump off the Kawarau Bridge into the canyon below.
11 minute video of Queenstown, New Zealand. Click on the �YouTube player below to watch the video. | ||
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Hello Everyone! When the day started I thought it was going to be a wash out like yesterday. My plans for the day were canceled today due to the weather. The rain stopped for the most part around noon so I headed out not really sure of what I was going to do but I was for sure not going to sit in my hotel room. My first stop was Arrowtown. It's an old gold rush town about 20 kilometers from Queenstown. I wandered around there a bit and then headed to the historic old Kayarau Suspension Bridge. This is where Bungy jumping first began. A very scenic area and it was fun watching all the folks that are much braver than I leap off the bridge into the canyon below. I attached a picture of the bridge and a jumper.  On my way back into Queenstown I saw this road going almost straight up in the air so I decided to go up and have a look. It led to the Coronet Ski Area where there were nice views of the area. I came back into Queenstown through the Shotover Gorge where I have a trip on the infamous Shotover Jetboat tomorrow. I spent the rest of the afternoon in downtown Queenstown. I am trying to get a helicopter to take me back down to Milford Sound. But the weather is not cooperating. I sure would hate to leave here without seeing it. I scheduled five days in Queenstown intentionally knowing the weather was unpredictable here. But I am running out of days and the forecast does not look good for tomorrow either. Looks good for Monday but don't think I can do everything I want to do in just that one day as I leave for the North Island on Tuesday. Had fun today despite the weather. Anybody know how I can watch the Colts game on the Internet? I think it would be on around 6:00am Monday morning my time. Tim |
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2007:
I battled the weather once again on Sunday. My first activity of the day was the Shotover Jet.
I also spent some time in downtown Queenstown.
I should have canceled this helicopter flight due to the bad weather.
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Hello, Not having any luck with the weather here in Queenstown at all. This morning before it started to rain I did the Shotover Jetboat. That was fun but only lasted 30 minutes. That is the attached picture. It pretty much rained the rest of the day. I had a helicopter trip scheduled for 1:00. I should have canceled it since it was gloomy and raining but I thought perhaps we would get to a place where it wasn't, but we didn't. It was supposed to be a scenic mountain flight with a snow landing. Well he found one small patch of snow in a corner of a mountain and landed there. You couldn't even see down the side of the mountain where he landed. Not that it would have made much of a difference since it was raining with very poor visibility. The flight turned out to be a waste of time. It's still raining as I write this. I spent the rest of the day updating the website. Tim |
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007:
I began my last day on the South Island driving around Central Otego.
From Cromwell it was a very scenic drive to Glenorchy.
It was a very windy drive between Queenstown and Glenorchy but the scenery was spectacular.
Once in Glenorchy I went on a four hour Dart River Safari.
This is the area where The Lord of the Rings was filmed along with a lot of other movies.
I returned to Queenstown on the same scenic road after the safari.
10 minute video of my jetboat journey on the Dart River in Glenorchy, New Zealand. Click on the �YouTube player below to watch the video. | ||
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Hello Everyone, The best part of the day was when I got back to the hotel this evening and checked the football scores. I found a place to watch the game online but it started at noon my time and I had other plans. I'll be home in time to see the Super Bowl. Today was an ok day. Weather wasn't awful although quite windy. Today I did the Dart River Safari. This originates for Glenorchy which is about 50 kilometers from Queenstown. It is a very scenic drive between Queenstown and there. Today's attached picture was taken on the road between Queenstown and Glenorchy. The jet boats took us very deep into the wilderness up the Dart River. It was a very scenic trip but the clouds covered a lot of the mountains and it did rain from time to time. When you are speeding down the river at 70 kilometers an hour, the wind blowing at about that speed as well and then raindrops hit you, it's kind of like getting caught in machine gun fire. This is the area where the Lord of the Rings was filmed along with hundreds of other movies. We actually saw film crews out there filming something today. It must have been a car commercial. After about two hours on the jet boat out there we took a forest walk and then came back by off-road vehicles. I never did get back to Milford Sound. I did have a helicopter lined up to take me there this morning. But as always the weather down there was bad and we couldn't go. Leaving the South Island tomorrow and am flying to Wellington on the North Island. I will spend six days on the North Island before flying home Sunday night. Tim |
Click above to continue to my next adventure, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND.
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