New Zealand, part 2 of 2

So when we left off, I had just finished up with the overnight cruise on Milford Sound and taken the bus back to Queenstown, since my scenic flight was cancelled on account of too many clouds.

Looking northward along the beautiful Lake Wakatipu
on the trip back to Queenstown from Milford Sound

We got back to Queenstown obviously much later in the day than had been expected in the original itinerary (which called for a 45-minute flight rather than a six-hour bus odyssey), so I scrambled to squeeze in another activity in the waning daylight, a zip trek adventure up on the mountainside that was just a short walk from the hotel I was staying in. I took the Skyline Gondola on a scenic 900-meter climb up Mt. Ngongotaha to the Rotorua "adventure complex" at the top, which features seriously hardcore mountain biking, luge, bungee jumping, a sky swing, and ziplining. Though the ziplining experience itself was enjoyable, and the company, Ziptrek Ecotours, incredibly admirable for its stance on sustainability and preservation, I think this would have been a lot more enjoyable had the scenery been better. As it was, we were ziplining through swaths of largely denuded pine forest, as most of the lower boughs of the trees were quite free of foliage – and moreover, the soaring Douglas Firs that we sped through aren't even native, but rather had long ago been introduced from North America. Anyway, the experience of ziplining (sometimes called "flying fox") was fun, though honestly, I should have left my Nikon and the giant zoom lens in the hotel room. I was so fearful the thing would end up bonking me in the head, I was reluctant to get too crazy on the upside-down ziplining (though I did do it somewhat inadvertently once), and my futile efforts to get a good shot probably prevented me from getting the full enjoyment out of the experience. The final line (it was a four-line "trek") was the longest and the views, finally, were great, as the large clearing afforded a terrific view of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.

Looking down on Queenstown as I rode the Skyline Gondola up the
mountain to do my ziplining; my hotel is at the lower right, just
on the edge of the beautiful Queenstown Park

The bungee and sky swing platform – the steep
grade of the mountainside would make this jump
particularly terrifying!

One of the "treehouses" from which
I flew on a zipline; note the stairs on
the right leading to nothingness:
that's the launch point

Looking up at one of the treehouse platforms
(Photo courtesy of Ziptrek Eco-tours)

This was the final line of the experience, and indeed the only one that
yielded any sort of scenic views (Photo courtesy of Ziptrek Eco-tours)

Impressive scenery at a winery in Central Otago

I stayed two more nights in delightful Queenstown, enjoying some great meals during my time there, and took a great tour of five wineries in the Central Otago region. There's something quite special about drinking wines right at the place where they were made and talking to the people who actually made them. It was a great experience on the whole, with the one standout being Carrick, a winery in Bannockburn. It's not that their wines were head and shoulders above the other wineries' offerings, but it was the food and experience that made it so memorable. My little group stopped there for lunch and we enjoyed these incredible tasting platters of antipasto goodies, local cheeses, smoked salmon, a tasty bacon hock terrine, salami, prosciutto, salads, fritters, pickles, piquanté peppers, fresh fruit, a couple of different spreads, and freshly baked breads. The four of us, after tasting a half dozen Carrick wines, opted for a bottle of their crisp Sauvignon Blanc (a varietal New Zealand excels at) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

This old Presbyterian church has been converted
and re-appropriated to serve a much more
practical use: tasting wine!

A fairly simple, yet wildly colorful, tasting platter
of cheeses, meats, and dried fruits

The tasting table: better than a pulpit

Settling in for a meal started with fresh-baked breads

One of the most memorable meals of the trip – a lovely tasting platter
complemented by a bottle of wine at Carrick Winery

A postcard-perfect view from the back deck at the Carrick cellar door

Autumn comes to Central Otago

Looking out from the winery's cellar door

Rows of vines with a beautiful palette of colors and textures as
a backdrop in the Kiwi autumn

Another scenic shot with a
directional sign to one of Otago's
 notable wineries, Mt. Difficulty

The daily menu at Fishbone... note the breathtaking
prices (for reference, 1 NZD = 85¢ USD)

Another memorable dining experience was at a popular restaurant in town called Fishbone where I got to try their famous Bluff oysters from the cold waters at the very southern bit of the island (the seaport town nearest to where they're from is called Bluff, hence the capital 'B'). Permit me to go off on a bit of a tangent here... I've never quite understood the whole oyster thing, frankly. I'm convinced a lot of people just pretend to like them so they can appear chic and trendy or whatever. I mean, really... they're slimy, they're really expensive these days, and it's basically like swallowing a squishy piece of raw muscle that tastes like salt, with a splash of ocean water tossed in for good measure. You can't even really eat them in the sense of chewing and savoring them. You have to gulp them down like you're swallowing a pill. I guess some people chew them up, but I think for a lot of people, that would trigger a pretty strong gag reflex. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico and had more than my fill of oysters as a youngster. In those days, of course, they weren't all nouveau and trendy like they are today. We'd go to this little divey joint, I guess you'd call it an oyster bar, and sit at the counters which were – if memory serves – filled with crushed ice and scattered with a bunch of fresh oysters from the Gulf. You'd get an oyster knife and just have a field day. Cheap, disgusting, and not remotely haute cuisine. Back then, the only way I could get an oyster down without it coming right back up was to sandwich it between two saltine crackers (the crunchy offsetting the slimy, in my child's logic) with a generous dollop of cocktail sauce. I remember, perhaps a decade ago, visiting the tourist trap hell known as Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco where I nearly passed out when I was told a platter of four oysters cost $9. Seriously! And they're probably double that cost now. I mean, come on, they're just oysters... not exactly the speediest or most elusive of beasts. It really can't take all that much effort to catch them! We've got a place here in KL that serves these special oysters from off the Normandy coast that cost RM38 each. That's about US$12 per oyster. Now, admittedly, this is a pretty good oyster. I've had them, and they're indeed not your run-of-the-mill pieces of slime. And also admittedly, Malaysia is a very long way for these little guys to travel from Normandy, France. So yeah. But what's the excuse in San Francisco? What's the excuse in New Zealand? That's what I thought.

My lone Bluff oyster: World duly rocked,
life forever changed. Except not really

Okay, anyway, back to Fishbone. So I had my big famous Bluff oyster, hoop de doo, and it tasted exactly like a mouthful of ocean water. It was alright though, as it was only one – the full serving of six would have done me in (and at US$25 for the serving, I was a bit mortified). But I looked very, very cool as I sucked that one lone oyster down, I'm sure. So yeah, the rest of the meal was great (prawn tacos and baked flounder, yum), and the dessert was New Zealand's pride and joy, pavlova, a meringue-based dessert that was somehow simultaneously airily light and richly decadent. Great restaurant, with nearly everything sourced locally. But to eat well here, or nearly anywhere in Queenstown for that matter, come empty of stomach and full of wallet. Food is just not at all cheap as a general rule in New Zealand. A meal for two at Fishbone could easily approach US$200 if you throw in a bottle of mid-grade local wine (about $60). Yes, the food in New Zealand is, on the whole, outstanding. No place in the country is more than about 80 miles from the ocean and plentiful grazing land, clean air, and unspoiled water have allowed New Zealand to develop a fine reputation for quality food, particularly lamb, beef, dairy products, and seafood. Fresh, local, delicious. But oh, you will pay, my friend. You will pay.

One of my yummy prawn tacos at Fishbone

It looks like Eggs Benedict with the bizarre addition
of capers, but nope... it's NZ Pavlova, a meringue
dessert; the greenish bits are passionfruit seeds

My car for a couple of days... the Aussie/NZ version
of Chevrolet called "Holden" or something like that

Moving on to the next phase of my journey, I rented a car and headed out from Queenstown en route to Lake Tekapo. The first few hours of the drive were incredibly scenic, and I made a number of stops, even briefly tempted to try bungee jumping at the place where it all started (on a commercial basis, at least), but figured that jumping out of a plane was enough for one trip. Unfortunately, the blue skies didn't last through the day, and with spectacularly uncooperative weather descending like a mantle onto my shoulders, the evening and at least the first half of the subsequent day was the most dismal stretch of the entire trip. The scenery at Tekapo should have been stunning. I should have taken an incredible sightseeing flight around the mountains and glaciers. I should have gone to an observatory for nighttime stargazing in one of the world's darkest "dark sky" locations. Precisely none of that happened thanks to an entire afternoon, evening, night, and following morning of low clouds and persistent light rain. I stayed in a nice apartment at a resort called "Peppers" that would have probably been great under better conditions, and I did indulge in another terrific tasting platter (similar to the one at Carrick Winery) for my dinner that night, along with a couple of outstanding wines from Marlborough and Central Otago. Pretty much nothing else about that day was memorable, though.

The beautiful suspension bridge spanning the Kawarau River gorge,
now home to AJ Hackett bungee jumping

This is where commercial bungee jumping all began

I suppose if you're going to be terror-stricken
in a bungee jump, the stunning scenery
in the area surely must help a bit

The "tasting board" with a glass of Pinot Gris at
Peppers Resort in Lake Tekapo

The kitchen at the resort apartment I stayed
in... used only to make coffee the next morning

As I proceeded the next day towards Christchurch, the gloomy weather held on, but pockets of sporadic sunshine and the evocative atmospherics that cloud and humidity can combine to provide actually yielded some pretty special photos. I stopped in a quaint town called Ashburton for a quick lunch and a tiny bit of exploring. But "quaint" turned rather rapidly into "dull," so I pressed onward. Just before I rolled into Christchurch, I detoured to do some jet boating on the alpine Waimakariri River, a real thrill ride speeding along at 50-60 mph on the shallow, clear blue glacial water and taking in the gorgeous scenery along the way. The abrupt turns, 360-degree spins, and of course the steady light rain that started about halfway into the ride all contributed to a really good time, if not to any particularly great pictures. So though there aren't any photos from the jet boating that are worth sharing, take a look at some of the scenery from the road trip... be sure to click on and enlarge these photos (which are not presented chronologically). The beauty of the region really came across nicely that day, and once again, it's pretty amazing how much some of these photos remind me of my home state of Colorado!

A damp mist created saturated colors and great atmospherics

Dew drops and light fog

The contrast between the bright white low-level clouds and
dark, shrouded mountains made for a great scene here

This was really nice... not too far out of Queenstown, I stopped at
a little rest area by Lake Hayes and this was the view

Another study in contrast, with focused bits of sunlight
splashing down on the landscape in the distance

Another lovely lake near the border of Otago and Canterbury

One of my very favorite photos from the trip... so much color!

Same lake as before, entering the Canterbury region along
Route 8, called the Twizel-Omarama Highway

This was well into the Canterbury region, after Lake Tekapo...
a true sense of space and solitude in the area, to be certain

A mobile advertisement! This flight-ready vintage biplane near Lake
Tekapo serves as a marketing tool for a locally based flightseeing outfit
(though the flights offered are not in this aircraft)

One of my favorite images, and I can't quite even remember where
I snapped this – somewhere between Queenstown and Lake Tekapo!

Welcome to Christchurch!

I arrived in Christchurch late that afternoon and was pretty astounded at how obvious the destruction from the earthquakes of 2011 still was. In February of that year, Christchurch was devastated by a quake that hit on a Tuesday right at the busy lunchtime hour. Six months earlier, the area had been rattled by a 6.3 temblor, and though the February quake wasn't as powerful, it was much shallower and much closer to the city center. The violence of the ground shaking was among the most intense to have ever been recorded in an urban area. Buildings – many already weakened by the previous quake – collapsed throughout the city, significant liquefaction occurred just east of the downtown area, and damage throughout Christchurch was widespread. In the destruction and collapsing buildings, 185 people perished. Two substantial aftershocks, the latter of which was as strong as the main quake, struck the city in June of that same year, causing still more damage.

The Christchurch earthquakes made global headlines in 2011, of course, but they were in and out of the news fairly quickly, and having been there now, even three years later, it's easy to say the media seriously understated the destruction wrought on the South Island's largest city. Arriving on the scene in 2014, it wasn't immediately evident there had been a major earthquake in the city, but it was quite clear that something was going on. Following the series of quakes, over 1,000 buildings in Christchurch's central business district were demolished. That's a staggering number of buildings for a relatively small city (about 375,000), underscoring how grievously these earthquakes affected Christchurch and the whole of New Zealand. Even during my visit, numerous condemned buildings still stood, vacant, silent, cordoned off, awaiting their impending doom. Now, the entire CBD is effectively a massive construction zone, a veritable blizzard of orange cones, blocked streets, redirected travel, and temporary fencing. It's a stark testament to the devastation that was wrought by the 2011 earthquakes.

Note the pneumatic tubes snaking about overhead

Yet, after spending some time in Christchurch – a truly engaging and charming city, I found – and talking to its proud and resilient residents, it seems certain that the Christchurch of tomorrow will be an even stronger city. One particularly fascinating denizen I met there owns an eclectic, funky café built in the space that once housed the High Street Post Office. His place was among the first businesses in the CBD to be re-established after the February 2011 quake, and even that accomplishment took a year to achieve, so complete was the damage. The popular C1 Espresso Café serves up great coffees, pastries, and other light fare in a truly funky and hard-to-pigeonhole environment. The café also offers the very unusual experience of having some of the food zipped directly to your table by clear pneumatic tubes, the same kind you see at the drive-up bank teller or in large supermarkets, used for sending cash to the office from the registers. The tubes at C1 have been modified and adapted to deliver not bank deposits or cash (sadly), but rather a trio of delicious sliders and crispy fries, all cradled in a metal cylinder and zipped from kitchen to table at 60 mph via overhead pneumatic tubes. Pretty cool.

Delicious sliders and crispy fries at C1 Espresso Café

Scallops and streaky bacon...
there's no way this was going
to be anything but yummy!

My final meal in Christchurch was something purportedly resembling Mexican, I guess, but though it was very tasty, it was also nothing resembling either real Mexican or Tex-Mex. Sadly I can't remember the name of the place, but I could find it in a pinch, I'm sure. It was a fitting end to a short, but enjoyable time in Christchurch.

From there, I drove to the airport the next morning, dropped off my rental car, and grabbed an Air New Zealand flight back up to Auckland on the North Island, where I had a leisurely lunch – sushi of all things! – then caught my nonstop and still-lengthy 11-hour flight back to Kuala Lumpur. New Zealand is indeed far from everything (except perhaps Australia), but that isolation no doubt contributes greatly to its remarkable appeal. Enjoyable activities, loads of adventure, great wide-open roads, outstanding food and wine, and the fascinating Māori culture (which I didn't even get to touch on here!), all set against a stunning backdrop of natural grandeur and unspoiled, sparsely populated spaces, New Zealand is easily one of the world's most heralded travel destinations, an isolated island nation that is perhaps among a choice few Holy Grails of tourism for global wanderers. I thoroughly enjoyed my very rapid eight-day vacation there, and have already started making some tentative plans to (hopefully) return again next year... to the southern sensation the Māori call Aotearoa.

Natural, wide-open, clean, and beautiful... just as the tourism ads
proclaim, it's indeed 100% pure New Zealand

Te Waipounamu: New Zealand's South Island – Part 1 of 2

It looks suspiciously like my home state
of Colorado, but this is really New Zealand

I'm sure more than a few global wanderers have New Zealand plugged in prominently on a travel bucket list. (And for the record, I detest the term "bucket list" for truly unknown reasons, but at least everyone knows what it means, I suppose.) In a way, New Zealand is the civilized world's last frontier: Isolated, remote, and a complete study in contrasts. A far-flung island nation, near virtually nothing, yet a country which not only offers stunning natural beauty, but one which offers a phenomenally well-developed infrastructure, second-to-none modernity, and a travel experience that draws on contemporary comfort and wild rugged adventure and nature in equal measure.

I had the chance to venture south to New Zealand recently, during the advent of the Kiwi autumn – that's early spring for us northern latitude folks. I had to make some decisions about which of the two principal islands to spend most of my time exploring, and as I wanted a blend of scenic beauty and the outstanding adventure tourism for which the country is rightly known, it made choosing the South Island a pretty easy one. Called Te Waipounamu in the native Māori language, meaning "the waters of greenstone," the South Island has a substantially larger landmass than the North Island, yet less than a quarter of New Zealand's 4.5 million residents call it home. With plenty of wide-open spaces, mountains, glaciers, and forests, and just a million people in total, South Island is definitely the cure for those in need of a respite from big-city congestion.

One of many scenic, pastoral landscapes dotting the South Island

Nearing Queenstown, the snow-capped mountain views
from the plane were magnificent

Note the small glacial lake in the bottom right

Waiting for snow... I arrived in April, about the beginning of the
New Zealand autumn, so not all of the mountain ranges bore snow

The Remarkables, a jagged mountain range
that dominates the Queenstown-area landscape

A view of the edge of Queenstown
on approach to landing at the airport

The park in Queenstown next to my hotel

I arrived in Auckland, on the top bit of the North Island, very late at night after a pretty long (10-hour) flight from KL. I stayed overnight at an airport hotel there, sleeping at about 1 a.m., then caught an early morning flight on Air New Zealand down to Queenstown, which is in the southern half of the South Island, in the beautiful Central Otago region. Two hours later, after flying over the snow-capped Southern Alps, I arrived at the airport and was taken to my hotel, a terrific place called Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel. With little time to spare, I checked in, dropped off my bags, and was whisked off to my first adventure appointment – skydiving! Needless to say, at this point I was a bit jet-lagged, certainly glassy-eyed, and more or less just being swept along by the inertia of my itinerary.

The Cessna that took us up

Once on board the Cessna Caravan with a half-dozen fellow jumpers, the side door was rolled closed, its clear acrylic slats affording me a spectacular view of Queenstown and the surrounding mountains as we leapt off the grass runway and climbed to our jump altitude of over 15,000 feet. Still, I was fine, and though I accepted the tube of supplemental oxygen that was offered, I didn't feel I needed it. My breathing was fine, and my nerves were calm. I've spent many hours in small airplanes, including my own beloved Piper Cherokee that I sold before moving to Malaysia. But I always stayed very much inside those planes, something that was not to be the case this time. My distinct lack of amusement at being the first one out of the plane was met with dismissive laughter and the Plexiglas door was rolled up, and suddenly, along with a blast of cold air, there was the world, tiny and remote, nearly three miles below us. And it was then that the first thrill of terror raced through me.

Looking down a split second after leaving
the plane, wondering whether or not
this was truly a good decision

Though I’ve spent a lot of time in the air, both as a passenger and a pilot, nothing in my experience had prepared me for the sensation of being in the frame of an open door of an airplane in flight. I reckon it's something that you get used to after a few jumps, but on the first, it's just categorically wrong, a situation that's irreconcilable with logic (and the sense of self-preservation). Cold high-altitude air screamed into the plane and my mind embraced the horror as I looked straight down. But there was barely any time for the apprehension to fully register, nor was there to be any hesitation. My jumpmaster and I simply rotated ourselves slightly towards the door and there we were, hanging out of the airplane. Head back, legs tucked slightly under the fuselage, a couple of preparatory rocking movements, and then, we simply fell from the airplane, the only thing separating us from certain death being the precious contents of a compact pack on the jumpmaster’s back. A split-second of weightlessness and my heart leapt instantly into my throat, following by the inexorable claws of gravity seizing us, then taking hold. We rocketed to Earth, accelerating to terminal velocity, some 200 kph (120 mph), in a matter of seconds. And then, free fall.

Holy $#*%!!! Gravity works!

A small drogue chute is deployed early in the free fall
to stabilize the descent – and look at that scenery!

High above New Zealand and falling fast...
this was just after passing through 10,000 feet

We stayed in that chilly and wind-buffeted free fall for a full minute, plummeting a startling two miles straight down in that short time. When we reached roughly 6,000 feet, the jumpmaster deployed the main chute, and as that big, beautiful parachute unfurled above us, I felt a surge of relief... but not for the reason you might suspect. Free falling at 120 miles an hour produces quite a wind chill, so I was more than happy to slow down and warm up a bit! And in so doing, I was able to just look around and take it all in... and what a panorama. For five wonderful minutes, we drifted ever downward, taking in the stunning scenery of New Zealand’s Lake Wakatipu region. My jumpmaster handed me the “reins” to the chute and let me fly us, pulling one side and then the other to steer us gracefully around the clear blue sky. It was remarkable… a magnificent experience to be suspended there in mid-air like a bird, free and alive.

Stunning views from 6,700 feet, moments before the main chute
was deployed for a leisurely completion to the jump

Touchdown! Coming in for a gentle landing on terra firma

The landing was smooth and effortless, a testament to the skill and experience of my jumpmaster (who at that time had over 26,000 jumps logged). A final volley of photos on the ground, and the experience was over as suddenly as it had begun. What an introduction to my week in New Zealand!

After the jump! Sweet!

Pinot noir grapes
at Amisfield

That evening, I had dinner at Amisfield Winery & Bistro just outside of Queenstown, which, a week or two later, hosted no less than Prince William and Kate Middleton on the royal couple's tour of New Zealand. We opted for the NZ$120 (just over US$100) "Trust the Chef" set meal, a four-course wine-paired option that gives the chef free rein to wow you with dishes made with the fresh produce and ingredients of the day. It definitely wasn't the best meal I had on the trip, to be honest, but it was okay, and the wine was excellent, as was the scenery and general ambiance. If I were to return, I'd just order off the menu and forego "trusting the chef." Charcuterie and cheese boards are always a good choice at winery restaurants (or anywhere, really), and I think that's what I'd elect to order here next time, too.

Amisfield Winery and Bistro

Some of the vines at Amisfield Winery, late afternoon

We trusted the chef and this was one of our courses...
I can't even recall what it was. Looks reasonably
pretty on the plate, but it wasn't memorable at all

I suppose nothing else on the trip made quite the impression of jumping out of an airplane, but that didn't make any of it any less memorable. The next adventure, decidedly more tame, was to be an overnight cruise on Milford Sound. We took a scenic coach from Queenstown around the southern half of the immense Lake Wakatipu through the valley to Te Anau (a small town which also sits on another massive lake), then on from there through the mountains to Milford. The distance from Queenstown to Milford is quite short as the crow flies, but as there is no direct land route, the driving distance is fairly extreme: a leisurely journey by scenic coach can easily take five or six hours. It was a comfortable trip, I met some interesting people on the bus, and the journey yielded some beautiful photos, as nearly the entire route was incredibly scenic.

The land route from Queenstown to
Milford is shown here in red; air routes
are shown in yellow

Part of the southern arm of the immense Lake Wakatipu

From here, we left the Wakatipu area and headed into
the valleys leading to Te Anau and Piopiotahi,
the Māori name for Milford Sound

Fertile farmland backdropped by imposing mountains... just gorgeous

Another shot from Lake Wakatipu

Along Route 6 in the Otago region

As immense as Lake Wakatipu is, Lake Te Anau is even larger: it is the
largest lake in the South Island by surface area, and the largest lake in
the entirety of Australasia by freshwater volume

A floatplane rests on the glassy surface of Lake Te Anau

After Te Anau, the looming mountains of the Fiordland region beckoned

And here is our distinctively wedge-shaped coach;
the livery makes the effect more pronounced, I think,
but the bus really is shaped that way, too!

Some of the glacially sculpted mountains of the
untamed Fiordland region

On a short hike during a planned
stop, we found this waterfall
and iridescent blue pool

A vast and humbling landscape leading to the final portion of the
journey: through the Homer Tunnel and on to Milford Sound
(Look at the tiny vehicles in comparison for a sense of scale!)

At the east portal of the Homer Tunnel, on the Milford
Sound Highway, a vast glacier creeps down a nearby
mountain

Here's a wider view, showing the numerous small
waterfalls resulting from the glacial melting

The east portal of the 1.2-km Homer
Tunnel. Inside, the tunnel is completely
unlined (raw granite), wet, and very poorly
lit, so it's rather creepy

Descending on the west side of the tunnel, we stopped
and explored a lush forest that felt quite primeval

There's not much in the photo for
scale, but this fern was easily
six feet (nearly 2m) across

One of my favorite photos from the forest, the Cleddau River rushing by
on its journey to Deepwater Basin, then Milford Sound, and
finally the Tasman Sea

And finally, our long overland journey nears its end, and the dramatic,
shrouded peaks of Milford Sound come into view

Another photo showcasing the vastness of the Fiordland landscape
as a scenic flight takes off in the waning afternoon sunlight

The Milford Mariner in the harbor; the iconicMitre Peak
can be seen clearly in the background

We arrived at the harbor in Milford around 4pm and before long, had set out to sea aboard the Milford Mariner cruise ship, a vessel built in a heritage style, giving a traditional appearance but offering distinctly modern comforts and amenities. I was assigned a nice stateroom fore and starboard, and once I deposited my overnight bag there, spent most of my time on deck and in the spacious dining area. Before sundown, we were given the opportunity to take sea kayaks or small tender craft out on the beautiful Milford Sound. Low clouds had come in, giving everything a surreal sense of foreboding. No rain developed, just an eerie atmospheric ambiance. We explored several coves and enjoyed the cool, damp sea air as we plied leisurely around on the open water, never wandering too far from the Mariner.

Ropes and chains and floating orange doughnuts...
how can you not love the nautical life?

Here's my cabin... more than sufficient
for an overnight cruise

Leaving port and heading to sea

The first of many impressive waterfalls we saw

Good weather as we headed out

Looking off the stern of the ship as we left the confines of the sound

Paddling around in the water under a thick, low cloud canopy; no idea
who the guy on the left was – he was not part of our group

Looking to the densely forested shoreline from the small boats

In time, we made our way back to the ship, where we got ourselves tidied up for the dinner after sundown. However, before that, we were afforded a real delight.A small group of bottlenose dolphins took up a post off the Mariner's port bow, riding the bow wave, leaping and twirling with astonishing power and grace. From what one of the onboard naturalists told us, there was one female and three males, one substantially larger than the others. The large male was doing all he could to impress and woo the female, apparently, with the smaller males hanging back, perhaps watching his smooth moves, hoping to learn from the senior male in the group. The dolphins stayed with us for over an hour, making the crew's urgings to come to dinner go largely unheeded for at least the first 15 minutes or so! After all, you can eat any old time, but it's not every day you get to be in the company of these magnificent oceangoing mammals. Getting proper photos was a challenge for three reasons: we were on a boat going about 15-20 kts at the time, it was right around sundown, so light was very low, and there was rarely any notice when the dolphins were about to leap from the water. Out of about a dozen or so shots, only a handful ended up being of any use!

I was assigned at a table with some other voyagers and we all hit it off very well – a pair of Canadians and two Brits who had emigrated to Australia were on hand, so with that contingent and me from America, all of us at sea in New Zealand, pretty much had the entirety of the native English-speaking world covered! I wish I had gotten someone to take a picture of all of us; in hindsight, it's disappointing to not have any good photos of the people I met along the way on this trip.

In any case, though, it was a remarkably good buffet dinner – this was actually a harbinger of the rest of the trip's culinary offerings. With so much clean air, pure water, and unspoiled land, and virtually no native pests to chemically eradicate, the freshness and quality of the food in New Zealand is amazing. It's not cheap, it must be said – eating out here can really dent a traveler's budget – but the caliber of food I ate at almost every meal was beyond reproach. Even a buffet dinner on a ship at sea blew me away.

Remarkably fresh and colorful veggies and NZ lamb
as part of my rather impressive buffet dinner

I didn't partake in anything from this part of the dessert table, but it certainly looked great

I didn't partake in anything from this
part of the dessert table, but it
certainly looked great

This is where I focused my post-meal attention...

This is where I focused my post-meal attention...

Fresh fruit, nuts, and cheeses – excellent!

Fresh fruit, nuts, and cheeses – excellent!

After a restful night's sleep, breakfast the next morning was just about as impressive as dinner the night before. As we cruised Milford Sound, we saw numerous waterfalls, a wide variety of seabirds, and a platoon of playful fur seals cavorting in the chilly waters. The plan on my itinerary called for me taking a scenic private plane flight back to Queenstown, but uncooperative clouds and questionable weather coming in off the sea stymied that, so it was back on board the bus for a long ride back. On the plus side, we encountered a pair of cheeky Kea parrots on the west side approach to Homer Tunnel. Wet from the persistent mist, the parrots waddled around on the roadside and on top of cars waiting their turn to go through the tunnel. Apparently quite accustomed to parrot paparazzi, the birds did plenty of strutting and mugging for the cameras. I also got to spend a bit more time in Te Anau on the return journey, and it's a thoroughly charming town, one of the two gateways to the region. I picked up three or four bottles of various New Zealand wines here, too.

One of the many waterfalls we saw in Milford Sound, this one shortly after sunrise

One of the many waterfalls we
saw in Milford Sound, this one
shortly after sunrise

A delicious breakfast with more fresh fruit

A delicious breakfast with more fresh fruit

Fur seals socializing on the rocks

Fur seals socializing on the rocks

This one reminds me of a dog scratching an itch

This one reminds me of a dog scratching an itch

A seal pup checking out the humans passing by

A seal pup checking out the humans
passing by

Stirling Falls, also called Waimanu Falls, is one of Milford Sound's two permanent waterfalls, plunging 151m (almost 500 feet)

Stirling Falls, also called Waimanu Falls,
is one of Milford Sound's two
permanent waterfalls, plunging
151m (almost 500 feet)

Getting closer to Stirling Falls... it's supposed to be good luck (or something) to navigate into the mist from a waterfall, so that's what our captain did

Getting closer to Stirling Falls... it's supposed to be good
luck (or something) to navigate into the mist from a waterfall,
so that's what our captain did

Misty veils of morning clouds in Milford Sound

Misty veils of morning clouds in Milford Sound

Another magnificent waterfall glimpsed as we were nearing port

Another magnificent waterfall glimpsed as we
were nearing port

A wet Kea on the road at Homer Tunnel

A wet Kea on the road at Homer Tunnel

Another Kea, the world's southernmost parrot species

Another Kea, the world's southernmost parrot species

Dealing with the parrot paparazzi...  all in a day's work for this Kea

Dealing with the parrot paparazzi... 

all in a day's work for this Kea

Lakeside scene in laid-back Te Anau

Lakeside scene in laid-back Te Anau

Walking around Te Anau during our time there, this was a typical neighborhood scene on a mostly cloudy early autumn day

Walking around Te Anau during our time there, this was a
typical neighborhood scene on a mostly cloudy early autumn day

I think I'll stop this entry here and put the rest of the trip into a second entry. It's already written, and the photos selected, it's just too long overall for one blog post! I'll still need to caption the photos and get everything laid out. In the next part, though, I'll cover the rest of my time in Queenstown – ziplining and a tour of several wineries among the highlights – and the trip by car from Queenstown to Christchurch. Stay tuned!