South Island

The weather for the flight out of Rotorua was marginal and, although we were mildly concerned about it, all went well. We found out later that it was the last flight to get out that day.

As we crossed the Cook Strait and flew along the coast of South Island, the clouds broke and we had some nice views of the Southern Alps. By the time we got to Christchurch, the ceiling had gone from overcast to broken and there were some patches of sunlight around. It didn’t last, though.

The next day was overcast and drizzly again as we headed north to Kaikoura. The trip was a couple of hours each way and the guide was very personable and gave us a good commentary along the way. The primary purpose of the expedition was to take a whale watching tour, which we did. This time, we were looking for Sperm whales and the outing was successful. We also saw several New Zealand fur seals , but no dolphins this trip.



The following day we left Christchirch via bus and headed for Queenstown via Mt. Cook. The weather was much better for this trip and the scenery was spectacular, although Mt. Cook itself was never fully visible.







We arrived in Queenstown that evening and stayed in a very nice place on the shore of the lake.



From there, we took full day tour to Milford Sound. this is the part of NZ that looks like Norway and, as with everywhere else we have seen, it is spectacularly beautiful. The road to Milford Sound is long, winding and (pardon the pun) gorgeous as it goes over a couple of passes and through one mountain. Each way took about four hours.




The second day's tour was a half day trip up to the village of Glenorchy at the mouth of the Dart River for a jetboat ride. It was an exhilarating ride, for certain, and was made even more so by the rain. This is definitely on our "places to come back to" list... next time, we will do it in the summertime, though. It was interesting to note that at this location, we were about 25 km from Milford Sound, as the crow flies.




Leaving Queenstown proved to be very trying and was the second big snag we hit on the trip. The airport is in an area of quirky weather and our flight out got cancelled because of it. Nevermind that the ceiling was actually pretty high and the visibility was good. Apparently, owing also to the mountainous conditions, the aircrew certifications vary from company to company, which resulted in all the airplanes operated by the carrier we were NOT booked on to continue to come and go.

Fortunately the folks who held our ticket were able to rebook us on a flight on the competition to Christchurch and to connect to a different Air Pacific flight on to Fiji. However it involved a 7 hour layover in CHC.

A note to myself and for anyone else interested: When scheduling flights into or out of Queenstown, New Zealand... do NOT book on QANTAS.