Milford Sound and Queenstown

We drove straight through Wanaka, Queenstown, and Te Anau toward Fiordland National Park. The Milford Highway lead us directly to the spectacular Milford Sound.


The Homer Tunnel is 2km long and barely two cars wide. During the day there is a stoplight for traffic to take turns going through. After 6pm the stoplights turn off so we had to go through very carefully. Also, there aren't any lights in the tunnel!


We camped at a campground 3km from the end of the road. The next morning we took the first boat out into the water. It was a 60 passenger boat with about 20 people on it. Milford Sound was very mystical. The clouds were hanging low, the water was smooth as glass, and the air was saturated with moisture.

At Milford Sound it rains 183 days a year. They get 7 meters of rain annually. They get so much rain that there is a layer of freshwater on top of the salt water.

Because of all the rain there were waterfalls everywhere!

This is the boat vibration in a cup of coffee. Cool, huh!

Latitude 45 degrees south of the equator.

After Milford Sound we continued our journey south to Invercargill. We found a Christmas Eve candle light service to go to. This photo was taken right before we went in for a 9:30pm service (notice that the sun is still setting).

Our Christmas Eve "candles" (glow sticks).

Merry Christmas! Our Christmas stockings in the van. Tasty licorice and chocolate!

We still believe in Santa Claus! We woke up to chocolate Santa lollies (candy) on the van Christmas morning. :)

On Christmas Day, on our way back to Queenstown, we visited The Remarkables ski field. The 13km, each way, dirt road led us to the field. There were 3 chairlifts and the entire ski field is above tree line.

Beautiful Lake Wakatipu. This is the view from downtown Queenstown. We stayed here for 8 days!

Adventure Time! We rode on the Shotover Jet up the Shotover river through the canyon. This jet boat can operate in as little as 10 cm of water. It pumps out 800 liters of water a second from both jets. And it turns around 360 degrees! Crazy fun.

Then we hiked up 1500 feet to get a wonderful view of the lake. For those less adventurous there is a gondola that will take you to the same location.

View of Queenstown from the top. Wow!

Happy New Year! Fireworks and drinks in downtown Queenstown with new friends.

The Untamed West Coast

After we picked up Black Betty, we started our adventure for the untamed west coast of New Zealand. This is Lake Rotoiti near St. Arnaud in Nelson Lakes National Park.

No elk or deer on the road here!

The star of Paparoa National Park is the Pancake Rocks. These are limestone cliffs that are slowly being eroded and shaped by the Tasman Sea.

During high tide, the Tasman Sea sends sprays of water through the blowholes. Many people watching get wet!

John battled the fierce sandflies twice so we could have yummy spaghetti for dinner!

This is Lake Mapourika, we camped here. It's just north of Franz Josef.

The Southern Alps from Franz Josef.

There is a permanent snow field high in the Southern Alps feeding down to two easily accessible glaciers. The first one is Franz Josef. An hour hike led us to a point about 60 meters from the terminal face of the Franz Josef glacier.

The second glacier is Fox Glacier. We hiked through a very dense rainforest to the viewing platform on the south side of the Fox Glacier.

Then we hiked to the dramatic terminal face of the Fox Glacier.

There was a rainstorm a few weeks ago. A huge chunk of the terminal face of the glacier broke off. There are still pieces floating in the river. John was lucky enough to find one of these floating ice chunks.

Lake Matheson is known for its reflections of the Southern Alps. The water wasn't calm enough for us to get a million dollar reflection photo, but we still got a good one of the lake and mountains.

Rock slide detour.

Driftwood on the beach at Bruce Bay.

We turned inland at Haast, where we went over Haast Pass and onward toward Queenstown. This was our camping spot at Cameron Flat on Haast Pass. What a view!

On the Road Again...

These were our accommodations while Black Betty was getting fixed. Good thing the tent made it through customs. Quite cozy!

While Black Betty was in for her repairs, we took advantage of our location close to the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park. We found an awesome company for a kayak and hiking trip. They even picked us up at the campground!

Half way through the trip we stopped at Apple Tree Bay for morning tea. Our guide, Ben, claimed to make coffee "better than Starbucks". I'm not sure it was better, but is sure was tasty! We enjoyed our mochachinos:)

This is Watering Cove, were we traded our kayaks for hiking boots.

Hiking the trail between Bark Bay and Torrent Bay.

The water taxi took us back to where we started that morning. The tide was out, so a tractor with a trailer attached came to get us and pulled us to shore.

We hired (kiwi for rented) a car and ventured to the north part of Abel Tasman National Park. We camped right by the beach in a little place called Totaranui. This is a sea star we found washed up in the sand.

From there we hiked the northeastern part of the coastal track to Separation Point. This beautiful hike followed the coast line. We went up over a ridge then down across a beach, up over a ridge and down across a beach.

We're not sure why it's called Separation Point. But it sure was pretty!

The trees in this photo are called New Zealand's Christmas Tree. It always flowers red around Christmas time.

We drove to the farthest northern point on the southern island, Farewell Spit. Thousands of tons of sand gets collected here each year from the winds and the currents of the Tasman Sea.

On our way back to return the car we stopped by Te Waikoropupu, the cold springs. This is the clearest springs in the world! The only place they have found clearer water in under the ice shelf in Antarctica. Wow! No, they don't let you swim or dive in it anymore.