Beautiful Te Anau and Milford Sound

After a fun day in Queenstown we drove a couple hours to the beautiful little town of Te Anau. This was one of Dad and my favourite spots from NZ round 1. We wanted to make sure that Mom and Andrew had a chance to see this quiet little town and experience the beauty that is Milford Sound. The drive to Te Anau was quite grey and cloudy and we got some rain, but by the time we reached our little hotel (which happened to be the same exact hotel dad and stayed at in NZ round 1 - ding ding!) the sun peaked out for a few minutes.

We stocked up on snacks and groceries for our day on the water at the supermarket which happened to be on Wong Way. Hahahahaha. Madre and I thought this was hilarious. Anyone else or was it just us? Probably just us.

That night we also happened to find a bar that put on the Patriots game for us... so intense! Nail biting all the way through but lucky for us we held on (gosh, I can't believe they missed that field goal... but YAY!) Superbowl for us!!! Woo woo!

The next morning we had a 2.5 hour drive through windy mountain roads to get to Milford Sound. The drive is just so pretty it was half of the adventure of the day! We had to go through a tiny little one way tunnel at one point and you can end up waiting almost 15 minutes in line to get through.

We arrived safely at the dock where we boarded the Milford Wanderer for our day out on the water.  Here's a whole bunch of photos from the surrounding beauty that is Milford Sound. It was very windy too! Look at the waterfall photos and you can see the wind was so strong it was blowing the water around right when it fell over the edge. We got really close at one point (got wet from the spray) because the boat pulls right up next to the rock face and practically goes under the waterfall!

It really is so beautiful... I spent the whole time on the boat in complete awe of the natural beauty surrounding us. On the way back to Te Anau we got stuck in line waiting to go through the tunnel so I grabbed some more photos of the mountains.

 Here's a little shout-out to Beanie with this next photo. Mom told me how much you like the little spy mirror in the front of cars... so I got one of her for you! Don't worry, I was keeping an eye on her from the front seat to make sure she was behaving during the long car ride!

That night we were all pretty tired from our adventures but we played outside for a bit. Andrew played with the star gazing app on his iPad which he and dad had fun exploring while I captured it on my camera. They are too funny! It was pretty cool though... they lined up the iPad with different planets and stars and Mom and Dad got to see the Southern Cross! We even happened upon a little critter on the way back inside... I think it was a possum?!?!

Madre and Padre invade the Kiwis!

Our adventure continues!

After some time in beautiful Tassie and a quick stop in Sydney to visit with cousin Em and Tony, Andrew and I made our way to New Zealand to meet up with Mom and Dad for a week long adventure. We started our trip in Queenstown and I almost thought we weren't going to make it! Apparently Mom and Dad caught the good flight in from Sydney. Their flight landed only 15 minutes before Andrew and my flight but from the sound of it I'd much rather have been on theirs! Coming into Queenstown there are lots of mountains that you have to fly over... which means LOTS of turbulence... which means my tummy was not a fan. We must have been blessed with horrid winds or something because mom and dad landed no problem while I, along with most of the plane was left reaching for my airsick bag! Luckily, I didn't have to use it but I felt terrible and have never been so glad to get off a plane.

Major crisis averted we met up with Mom and Dad and made our way to our hotel. Here's the view from our front door. Beeeautiful!

We headed out to grab some lunch and explore Queenstown since we were only there for one day. It's such a pretty little town basically settled in the middle of all these mountains... so everywhere you look is just pretty. Even normal streets and intersections looked great because of the beautiful backdrop!

We wandered down to the water and saw the steamship TSS Earnslaw which Grammo had seen and has a picture of when she was in NZ years ago. Pretty cool! (Shout out to you Grammo!)

We eventually made our way up to one of the mountains that has a gondola ride up (like straight up, almost vertical) the side of the mountain and drops you off at a viewing platform where they also happen to have GO-CARTS! Here are some pictures of the view. Breathtaking! I wouldn't mind living in Queenstown if I didn't have to fly into with all that turbulence all the time.

I don't have pictures of us on the go-carts because I couldn't bring my camera but here's a great one of Mom and Dad and Andrew gearing up! (He he he... I love being the photographer in cases like this!) I might be able to link a few once I get the website from Mom that were taken on the course... stay tuned for those...There's one of Dad and Andrew walking back up to the viewing platform from the bottom of the go-cart finish line... the hike back up was a pretty steep incline! By the way, I won the race the first time and the boys only won the 2nd time because mom and I gave them a head start because they were in the slower sleds for extra tall people...

We had a nice dinner at a great little Italian place that night and the next morning we just wandered around the city a bit while Mom found a blue post box to send a little card to Grammo! (Hi again Grammo!)

We had breakfast (they have bagels in NZ!!!! Woohooo!) and set off to the Shotover jet which dad and I had done last time we were in Queenstown. No pics of that either... you get wet and aren't allowed to bring your camera because you have to hold on! 360 degree turns on the river would be tough while trying to take a picture! It was a blast though and I've never seen mom laugh so hard! Fun times in Queenstown!