Sailing Through Clouds

Monday - June 10 –

After a really chilly night free camping along Lake Wakatipu right along Queenstown ( a 10 minute BEAUTFUL walk into town) we woke up to cloudy skies. But knowing the weather here in the South Island I knew it would be a great day by 10 am. We walked to Patagonia Chocolates and got some delicious hot chocolates and updates family (and the blog) about our travels. We then walked around downtown, and visited the visitors center. We planned on going to Milford Sound (google this place) tomorrow but since the road is closed because of a boulder that may fall so we decided to go to Doubtful South instead.

view from our campervan 

Jeff and I decided to got out of Queenstown and take a trip to Arrowtown which is about a 30 minute drive pass the ski fields. This town is quaint and adorable! If we were there during autumn the trees and leaves would have been beautiful but since we are there during winter it was bare so the scenery was not ideal. We walked around the shops and hung out for a bit.

Arrowton 

We then decided to head out and go to the famous AJ Hackett bungy site – my friends jumped from here about a month ago (you can view that here) but we just wanted to stop by and take a look ;) 

We then headed to wards Te Aunau. We drove down lake Wakatipu, which is the longest lake and the countries third, largest at 50 miles long.

Not a bad other side of the road driver! 

 We drove through Kingston, Garston which is the most inland town in the South Island (120 meters away from the coast). We then drove through Athol – this city has a population of 72 – yes you read it correct 72!!! Driving through the town of Mossburn was really interesting; it is the deer capitol od New Zealand. Kiwi’s farm deer here so you drive by and there are tons of deer just chilling in the fields. After the three way stop town with a dairy (convience store) we drove two more hours and we ended up in Te Anau which is a beautiful little town that sits right on the edge of Fiordland National Park. So beautiful and majestic. We parked and plugged our camper van in at a holiday park. We made a delicious tomato, pesto, and feta risotto with chicken J It was really nice to just be in our little home and have a delicious dinner!

Camper Van cookin! 

I am sitting by the heater trying to keep warm!!! 

Tuesday – June 11 –

Today was my favorite day so far J I wont bother you with a lot of text because I want to show you the beautiful pictures Jeff and I took during our boat ride. We first drove to Lake Manipouri and hopped on a boat. We then took about a 45-minute boat ride to the other side of the lake to Wilmount Pass. 

We then got onto a coach bus and headed to Deep Cove, which is the launching point for Doubtful Sound. This sound is incredible – we were there on the PERFECT day! It was just cloudy enough to be majestic but clear enough for us to see what we needed to. In this is part of Fiorland National Park – all of these mountains were created from retreating and advancing glaciers. The mountains sprouted from the water, which was 440 meters deep. It was incredible and it felt like we were sailing through clouds.  The boat was wicked awesome – it had two sails but none were up today – it was just beautiful. Jeff and I had such an incredible experience with this tour and would do it again in a heartbeat. Seeing the fiords, waterfalls, islands, inlets, and the beautiful mountains was an experience we will never forget. Even though we didn’t see any wildlife other than a few birds (we were supposed to see penguins, dolphins, and seals L ) it was still a great trip. This land was just the way God created it to be – untouched and breathtaking. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

One of my favorite moments on the water was when the captain asked us to have a few minutes of silence of the sounds – we all were still, didn’t talk, didn’t take any pictures and just stood in silence and took in the natural beauty around us. The boat shut off all of its engines and it was silent – it was incredible to listen to the birds, waterfalls and just the wildlife. I really enjoyed it J

“Doubtful Sound is a place of towering peaks and bush-clad islands, of twisting hidden arms and sheltered coves. It remains an unspoiled wilderness. In Maori legend, Tu Te Raki Whanoa created this incredibly beautiful fiord not alone but with the assistance of four young sea gods who carved out its sheltered arms.” 

You can really feel the power of nature here.

our boat!

We took a 3 hour boat ride through the sound almost all the way to the Tasman Sea and back again. After taking another coach and boat ride we arrived back to Manipouri. We drove back to Te Anau and spent a warm evening in Britzy (the campervan). There was a BEAUTIFUL sunset over the lake when we arrived back J

 Off to Dunedin in the morning!

Next post will be coming reallllyyyy soon since I have internet for the next few hours!