Sunday, March 30, 2008

Welcome to Fantasy Fiord!

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Smiles everybody....smiles!

Of course, most of us weren't smiling when the tour bus arrived at 7:15 am this morning for our five hour drive to Milford Falls (not to be confused with Wilford Brimley). Any time I mentioned I was going to Queenstown during my trip, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE said "You have to go to Milford Falls!". Far be it from me to ignore everyone. So, I waited a few days before booking my trip here because there are several tour groups that do this (all at slightly different prices) and the weather has been kinda rainy and I was hoping that it would be clearer than when I went to Arthurs Pass (although I ended up enjoying the raining day anyway). The weather report stated it was supposed to rain all weekend, but that today there would be fewer showers...so, I booked the BBQ Bus tour...

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Oh yes...a tour bus that also stops and makes you lunch along the way to the boat. Not only did it not rain today (which they said it does, on average, 200 days a year in Milford Sound), but it turned out to be a beautiful day, much to the surprise of everyone, including the driver. The first few hours were a bit of a struggle for the 12 of us to keep awake because it was dark and a bit chilly, but, after some tales of the area and a wee bit of heat, we were awake and made it to our first stop in a little town to gas up and have a snack before continuing on our journey.

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It was a beautiful little town called Te Anau, which is a popular hiking and boating town and the last "town" of any size between us and the next 4 hours of driving to our destination. We all had some snacks, "Tamed the Trout", and got back on the bus, before hitting our first of many scenic stops along the way.

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Yes, those pictures are right side up. That is how they were reflected in "Mirror Lake"....pretty cool. Something about the elements in the water that causes the reflection to be so clear. It actually looked even clearer in my photos than it did standing there. Then, we headed around the corner to a bigger part of the lake and the water was so calm that you could see the reflection of the larger mountains even better.

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I'm so glad it didn't rain or we wouldn't have seen any of this. We seemed to stop every 20-30 minutes for different areas of interest, usually something visual.

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Then we stopped in a little park and the BBQ Bus did what it does best...BBQ. Well, the driver cooked, not the bus...I couldn't afford THAT bus.

After lunch, we packed stuff up and headed to a few more scenic stops...

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Then, we got to the boat dock in Milford Sound, which it turns it...is not a sound at all. It's actually a fiord, but the name had already been set for years, so they kept it. Who cares what it's called when it looks like that! So, we all boarded the boat and headed out into the FIORD for the next couple of hours. Lots of purty along the way....

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We got VERY close to this waterfall....VERY...

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We got out to the Tasman Sea (not to be confused with the Tasmanian Devil), turned around and headed back to the dock.

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We all got back on the BBQ Bus and settled in for our four hour drive back (only one stop this time). The driver even slowed down a bit along the way so I could get a shot out my window of this one area that we couldn't stop for earlier (busses aren't allowed to pull over on this particular stretch of road)...so, that was nice of him. It was such a beautiful view above the green trees, it would have been a shame not to get a shot of it...

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I can see why some people might want to live here....

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2 comments:

gonoles84 said...

I'm glad the boys got some time to "Tame the Trout"....what did the ladies on the bus do? Oh right, they got out their portable Fiord-erators.

You guys must have been ravaged by BBQ time!

Gorgeous are the pics!

Vampire Hours said...

LOL....Fiord-erators! I think they heard me laughing all the way down to the lobby!