We ran 3 times, made two big walks and a long bikeride by the time we left Wanaka, the countryside was so beautiful and everything in New Zealand is focused on making it easy for people to enjoy it.Simple things like toilets (with paper and sinks, such small mercies...) in any time and along walkways, plus free parking and cl
early marked tracks to follow for walking and biking have made it a joy to be outside. Even the bike-seats were gentle on our rear ends.
early marked tracks to follow for walking and biking have made it a joy to be outside. Even the bike-seats were gentle on our rear ends.We left Wanaka and spent a night in Queenstown, a busy backpacker town by a lake with mountains in the background. It seems to be the centre of adrenalin sports (bungy jumping, sky diving etc) and we've come to a theory about why these are so popular in New Zealand. Life is just calm and easy, with few bumps along the way. Nature is so incredible and great places to visit abound, so at a certain moment there is a need for more. That's when the adrenalin stuff comes up and people feel the urge to jump hundreds of metres out of a plain or attached to a long rubbery rope. It's not a 'normal' thing to do!
I have to say that places like Queenstown leave me a bit cold. They are created on the back of the backpacker tourism and as such are busy in the evenings. The surrounding area is generally absolutely beautiful, but the towns themselves are very new with little character. In this country, the interest in and value of Nature and the great outdoors far outweighs that of the cities and towns.We drove the 4 hour stunning journey to take the Milford Sound ferry, 
a world-renowned tour. We had chosen the overnight cruise thanks to advice from friends who had said that the place is teeming with boats during the day. Milford Sound itself is actually a fjord, a huge inlet carved by a glacier leading out to the sea. It has very high mountains surrounding it, including a waterfall that is higher than Niagara Falls in Canada (we were surprised by this b
ecause it didn't look that big, but we were assured this was an optical illusion caused by the great height of the mountains surrounding it.)
a world-renowned tour. We had chosen the overnight cruise thanks to advice from friends who had said that the place is teeming with boats during the day. Milford Sound itself is actually a fjord, a huge inlet carved by a glacier leading out to the sea. It has very high mountains surrounding it, including a waterfall that is higher than Niagara Falls in Canada (we were surprised by this b
ecause it didn't look that big, but we were assured this was an optical illusion caused by the great height of the mountains surrounding it.)We were extremely lucky - it was cloudy for the whole of the drive there, and then at the last minutes before boarding the sun came out. This gave the water an unbelievable blue and a great contrast with the mountains.
One nice story - apparently there is one point on the mountains which is 700 metres high and a woman daredevil jumped from the top with a parachute. TV stations were alerted and interest was high as it was the first time this had been attempted. She jumped it, the 'chute came out just in time and she survived - unfortunately the camera crew had hit a technical hitch at the wrong moment and didn't get the shot. They asked her to do it again (some nerve!) but she calmly suggested they get stuffed, and the jump has never been done before or since.
The evening on the boat was made perfect by spending time with Peter, Dirck 
and Marijn from Belgium. We swapped travelling stories and drank bottle after bottle of red wine until well after the stars came out. They knew a lot about the stars and explained that most of what we could see now was impossible normally - mainly because we are looking at a different part of the universe, as well as the fact that the lack of artificial light made many stars more clear. It was a perfect, clear night and we loved it all.
and Marijn from Belgium. We swapped travelling stories and drank bottle after bottle of red wine until well after the stars came out. They knew a lot about the stars and explained that most of what we could see now was impossible normally - mainly because we are looking at a different part of the universe, as well as the fact that the lack of artificial light made many stars more clear. It was a perfect, clear night and we loved it all. The morning was windy and crisp as we finished off the cruise and nursed our hangovers on the way over towards Akaroa. 
