Dreamlike trip to Milford Sound and skiing in Queenstown!

Kia Ora from a new place in Aotearoa! (:

A few days ago a friend of mine I had met on the North Island Tour, Nick, and I went to explore another region of beautiful New Zealand.
In about 7-8 hours we went down to Queenstown by bus. Nick had already been there once with a friend, I hadn't. We had some pretty cool stops on our way, such as Lake Tekapo!
That was really neat because the first time I had been there, with our Outdoor Education group, there was no snow, but this time the lake was surrounded by snow - it was on the mountains, everywhere and it looked gorgeous combined with the turquoise colour of the water!!

Same place, different weather, old memories :)

Hi what's up, little buddy? :D

As our tour went on, we came into Fiordland. We visited Fiordland National Park and did The Chasm Walkway where we gained some extraordinary impressions of nature!

The mountains in the back were ginormous and the snow on top and the fog made them look real mysterious.

Simply WOW : hundreds and hundreds of little waterfalls running down the rocks ride beside the road where we were driving on:

Wee 'friends' in Fiordland - 

well, more or less our friends: These birds are native New Zealand birds, known for their naughty behaviour towards humans. Also called 'the clown of the mountains' the Keas are not afraid of stealing people's food, hats, whatever they can grab. 

Lucky they didn't get any of our stuff! :b

And here we are: Right before our Boat Cruise in Milford Sound!

The boat cruise was about 2.5 hours long and it was definitely worth the way we had travelled!

Waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls! You'd fall in love with it!

Nick and I on the boat 

Enjoying the view, the unique nature...

Encounter with seals!! :) Soooooo cute!

They weren't the only animals we saw - a group of dolphins was out there as well!!! 

This was one of the highlights for me - between 4 and 6 dolphins were jumping in and out of the water; they were too far away to get a good picture of them though.

The boat cruise was without a doubt a big success!!

In the evening Nick showed me around in Queenstown for a bit. The town is quite little, there are only a few shops (clothes shops, food stores, pharmacy), a tourist information and not much more. It's cute though and very touristic.

 We decided to go skiing although we both had not done it for ages. :b It's pretty easy to plan a skiing trip in Queenstown, even without your parents or when you're still under 16.

So the next morning we picked up our rented gear, got our ski passes and took the shuttle bus to 'The Remarkables', a well-known ski field in Queenstown.

During the first 2-3 hours we had to deal with a massive snowstorm! The skilifts except one were closed and without ski glasses you wouldn't have been able to see anything. Luckily the weather got better around lunchtime, the sky cleared and the clouds revealed a beautiful view on the skifield and the town! (In reality the colours were brighter and the sky lighter than on the photos. (: )

Rocking the skifield! :D

In the evening, when we came back from skiing, Nick and I went up the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown!

That's what our view was like:

Looovely, especially because we went up when dusk started, and when we arrived on top, on the viewing plateau, it was dark and you could see Queenstown at night!

We had some great days down in Fiordland and Milford Sound - I can advise it to everyone who visits the South Island of Aotearoa! No matter what the weather is like, these beautiful places are always worse a visit! ;)


Have some nice holidays, either winter or summer ones, you guys and see ya soon!!

Yoko ♥