Fiordland and Milford Sound

After an overnight stop in Christchurch we carried on down to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed outdoor adventure capital of New Zealand.  Given that we'd already risked life and limb on a couple of occasions further north we decided to take it easy in Queenstown for a few days.

One of the places we have been really excited to see in NZ is Milford Sound.  There's only one (expensive) hotel in Milford so the only other option is to do a day trip from either Te Anau or Queenstown.

Now, some of our previous updates have mentioned the incredible scenery around the country, but Milford Sound and Fiordland take the cake.  It takes about 4.5 hours one-way to get to Milford from Queenstown so as you can imagine we weren't too thrilled about the prospect of sitting on a bus for that long.  However, the route down there is amazing, taking you past farmland, lakes, forest, waterfalls, and through some pretty spectacular mountains.

On the way to Milford

Once in Milford we hopped on the Milford Encounter Cruise (www.redboats.co.nz) which takes you out into the sound for a 2 hour cruise.  The cruise was awesome.  The setting is truly spectacular and we even saw a pod of 20-30 dolphins and some NZ Fur Seals.  

Fur seals having a sleep

Out on the Sound