Ever have that feeling that you have to much time for something? Mostly you have to less time, right? Well…. I stayed In Queenstown for 2 weeks; The city known for the adrenaline activities and its food, good food. I really enjoyed the first few nights with my friends. We took the cablecars to the top of bob’s Peak and raced through gravity 800 metre down through the trees with our little karts, ate a lot of good good food and ended our little trip together with a chocolate fondue. So, that means that I would be alone again. And alone it was. I had a unbelievably awesome hostel but it was hard to blend in and in the end I spend my day’s by ‘finding waldo’ on the toilet wall. Not the best way to spend your day’s in Queenstown, right? You can also have something as ‘too much’. And that was Queenstown. To much (paid) activities, tourist and bad weather. Within a few days after my friends left Queenstown I got the feeling that I want to move on to the next place. But I couldn’t so I had so I had to entertain myself. Eventually I went to the forrest for some fresh air, deep breath and I found a new travel mindset when I was sitting next to a waterfall.
And then it was finally time to hit the road again: Deep within Fiordland National Park lies Milford Sound. We drove through a long tunnel and at the end of that tunnel a whole new world received us with open arms. A beautiful day with a lot of sun. Something really rare for a place like Milford sound, the place were it rains over 250 day’s a year with a mean annual rainfall of 6400 mm each year, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world. The rainfall can reach 250 mm in 24 hours.
But the beautiful thing about that is that The rainfall creates dozens of temporary waterfalls cascading down the cliff faces, some reaching a thousand metres in length. Smaller falls from such heights may never reach the bottom of the sound, drifting away in the wind. It is pure beauty.
Bounded by steep cliffs and dense rainforest, Milford Sound is by far (again) one of the most stunning and astonishing places I visited so far. And again I took a deep breath. Not because I didn’t feel fine, but because I enjoyed traveling again like no other day.
The day after that we were on our way to our new destination: Stewart island it was! Stewart island is over 85% national park and much of the original wildlife is intact. Most people come here for the hiking and birdwatching. And so was I, again really lucky with the weather and on the second day I had a good walk and impression of Stewart Island’s wild beauty. That evening I went out for some kiwi and Penguin spotting.
Stewart Island is a haven for the brown kiwi, blue penguins and the rare yellow-eyed penguins waddle among the rocks and come out round about 9 pm. Perfect time to take a look nearby those rocks. I did see heaps of penguins but no kiwi’s later that night unfortunately. I wish I could stay a few more nights on this lovely and relaxing island but it was Time to go.
We drove all the way to mt cook and once again we were really lucky with the weather (they say, because I start to get the feeling that it never rains over here 😉 ) We dropped our bags and went out for a walk while It was still sunny.
On te second day in mt cook I met up with my friend from the Netherlands; Merijn and his good friend Lars. Good to see those guys again! We decided to do a hike/walk the day after. No sooner said than done. We woke up really really early to do a sunrise hike. We did one of the most popular walks in the park, the track leads up the Hooker valley towards Aoraki/Mount Cook. We started our hike at 06:00 with good cheer in the hope we good see a stunning glimpse of the sunrise. And that is what we got. Only a slighty glimpse of Mt cook. But is was more than worth it!
I am going to spend a few more nights in this paradise and after that on the road again to Christchurch. Excited!
