Methodological Madness

This is now my second trip to New Zealand, the first one being to the North Island.

It’s still very early days after the trip, so I don’t have everything organised. Hopefully I will have selected photos up over the next few weeks.

Saturday: Sydney—Queenstown

It must be noted that Queenstown is not a major destination in terms to air travel, and international flights to Queenstown are few and far between. So I shouldn’t be suprised when the customs officer at Sydney Airport asked another officer, “does flight NZ832 exist?”

The plane, of course, was only two-thirds full, which means that I had a spare seat next to me. I would imagine that the flight itself is loss-making, to be subsidised by business class travellers to major centres like Auckland and Wellington.

Given that there were so few passengers on the plane, I was surprised to see Eddie and Carmen Li, who were also going to New Zealand for a holiday.

I arrived in Queenstown to be picked up by my travelling companions, Anna, Keith and Erica. They had already spent a week in New Zealand travelling through the east coast of South Island. We swapped rental cars (because of an arrangement I have with the car rental company) and drove to Queenstown.

That night was occupied by a Maori cultural experience in a place between Queenstown and Arrowtown.

Sunday: Queenstown—Te Anau

Sunday was mainly occupied by driving from Queenstown to Te Anau, with a brief break in a small town called Kingston.

A brief aside. One of the things about the South Island of New Zealand, of course, is that because of the mountainous terrain, there are often only one route between one place and another. So I won’t be usually commenting on how we got from one place to another, there is only one road.

In Te Anau, we stayed at a very good bed and breakfast called Keiko’s Cottages. I would highly recommended it.

The evening was spent visiting the Te Anau glowworm caves. This was followed by a pleasant dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

Note that in the summer, it only gets dark at about 10 pm, so many things can be packed into one day.

Monday: Milford Sound

We got up early to drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound. Getting early is a very good idea as it avoids tour groups, as well as providing better scenery along the way.

The drive to Milford did not seem to be as dangerous as first described to us. The road was windy as it followed two river valleys separated by the Homer Tunnel, but it was all right. Perhaps the fact that there were little traffic so early in the morning helped.

It so happened that it was a fine day, which does not happen very often in this part of the world. We went on a nature cruise. I would not bother to describe what the criuse it like—-the photos should be self-explanatory when they are up.

We returned to Te Anau in the afternoon and had much fun going around town in a quadricycle. Keiko’s has a barbeque, which we used to great effect with lamb cutlets, complemented by salad and soup.

The next part of the travelogue covers Wanaka.