January 20, 2025 – It's all about the coffee

A much quieter day today compared to yesterday. We actually had a free day so we just ended up doing a few things we hadn’t had time for.

I realised that I’d never seen an actual Kiwi bird, and even doing some walks it would be very unlikely I’d see one, as not only are they rare they are also nocturnal.

Lucky for me there is a Kiwi centre and native bird house less than 500m away, so we did that in the morning. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside as the light would disturb the Kiwis.

At lunch we drove to Glenorchy and had lunch at the famous Mrs Woolly’s general store. The pies were fantastic! We then drove over to the other side of the Queenstown bay to Kelvin Beach for a look and stopped at a lookout for more pics on the way.

At the Golf course near Kelvin beach I saw the first gum trees I’ve seen in NZ. Also at the Kiwi centre they had a good discussion on all the issues invasive species have caused, although it’s somewhat confronting to hear wallabies, rainbow lorikeets and possums described as pests when they are all protected at home.

One thing we have noticed here in NZ is the amount of people hitchhiking. This is something I’ve not noticed at all in New South Wales for a long time. As Sharon pointed out that Ivan Milat killed that off both literally and figuratively.

Reminded me of the hitchhiking serial killer joke. A hitchhiker gets into a car and say to the driver : aren’t you concerned you could be picking up a serial killer ? The driver responds : The odds of there being two of us in the same car would be near impossible.

Coming to Queenstown, this was another absolute must do thing on our list. Again we were blessed with outstanding weather, we started with a bit of drizzle however by the time we got to Milford Sound it was another warm clear sunny day.

According to the experts, Milford Sound is great in almost any sort of weather, when it’s raining it exposes lots of hidden waterfalls, and cloud and fog can give the place mystical properties. This may be the case, however if given the choice I’m going on a sunny day.

There are so many options on how to do Milford Sound, you can take an organised bus tour from Queenstown (or many other towns like Te Anau), fly in and out, combine a bus in with a flight out, drive there and just book a cruise on a boat.

We chose a bus tour from Queenstown that included a packed lunch and a two hour cruise on a boat through the Sound. There was also the option of changing from the bus to a flight for the return journey (of course for a rather significant additional charge).

The bus into the Sound stops at a couple of places for photo / toilet breaks, with a longer stop at Te Anau where you have a chance to grab a coffee and something to eat / purchase food if you didn’t buy the lunch package. Do this, as there is nothing at Milford Sound, and on our boat the only food was tea/coffee and biscuits. I would highly recommend a pie from “Miles Better Pies”

The bus stopped at Mirror Lakes for a photo opportunity (see my previous post of pics of that one) and the bridge over the Tutoko river. We also went past a number of very interesting looking coffee vans that I would have stopped at if I was driving myself. The Coffee Bomb at Garston looks amazing. Maybe it’s just the shiny silver Airstream caravan thats the attraction, but it also has an awesome rating on google, so they must be doing something right.

When we arrived at Milford Sound, we were transferred to a boat (in our case a large motorised catamaran) skippered by a South African with a penchant for crazy Dad jokes every few minutes.

The first thing we are told about Milford Sound is that it’s technically not a Sound at all, it’s a Fjord since the valley was carved by a glacier and not a river. However it was named before anyone was willing to borrow the word Fjord from Norwegian.

The cruise is of course spectacular, its about two hours, we got to see seals sunning themselves on rocks, the boat manoeuvres close to a waterfall so you can get a “Glacial Facial” from the spray if you so desire. The skipper also takes the boat out into the open water in the Tasman Sea as well, where it picks up significant speed (hold onto the handrails if outside!).

I mentioned that the package included the option to upgrade to a flight home. I hadn’t booked that initially as small planes scare the bejesus out of me. The recent crash of a small plane at Rottnest Island was also playing on my mind.

Elenor Roosevelt once said “Do one thing everyday that scares you”, and I think that could probably sum up my NZ holiday so far. The moonlight hike at the Hooker Valley Track scared me, I’m being scared daily on the roads here with some super crazy overtaking actions that I see other drivers doing on the shocking roads, so why not take a scary flight too ? This is the second time I’ve mentioned that at least I have decent insurance to cover the remaining family if the plane makes a John Denver manoeuvre.

That actually reminds me of one of my all time favourite dad jokes. Q. How is John Denver’s music like his aircraft ? A. Ultra Light and down to earth.

So weighing all that up against the prospect of a four hour bus ride back to Queenstown, I decide the send the Credit Card into the ring for another battering. The trusty credit card takes one for the team (or should I say 900), and here we are sitting on a small plane hurtling down the runway towards ~~certain death~~ the end of Milford Sound and then Queenstown only 45 minutes away. I guess that shows how much I hate busses if I’m willing to do this.

The flight is outstanding, with such amazing weather, the views are just jawdropping amazing. I am getting a few Indiana Jones vibes though as we fly so close to snow capped mountains in such a small plane. I wonder if the plane has a yellow dinghy?

The flight is 45 minutes however it seemed like it was only 5 once we were in the air. We arrived in Queenstown, flew over the main runway, and I’m thinking where are we going ? The runway is over there???, when all of a sudden the pilot makes a sharp tun and we head towards a runway that looks about the size of a pencil. It’s obvious now the other runway is reserved for ~~real~~ large planes.

The landing was very smooth, and unlike a commercial flight we were out of the airport in less than 5 minutes and in a taxi back to the apartment.