Milford Sound day tour

Regardless some tour companies told me it was too late to book the tour, i ran around Queenstown from 8:30 am and booked myself at 8:45 am (really last minute extra of the last tour for the day), a 12-HR tour via  Te Anau to Fiordland National Park, including a 9-hr bus ride with narratives by bus driver/guide of the history and status of the deer/sheep/cow farms, mountain ranges, majestic valleys, clear lakes and lush rain forest, and several interesting stops (underground water falls, wetland boardwalks, passes, a 1.2 km Homer tunnel, and a wild kea-smartest bird in the world), as well as a 2-hr cruise via Milford Sound that is actually a fiord, having been carved by a glacier. It was a rare sunny day for Milford Sound that I preferred, although our tour guide said that the sound is best seen on a rainy day as all the waterfalls can be seen in their full glory. This part of New Zealand received 9-18 meter of rainfall per year, which is more than  the Amazon. 

Some people stay in Te Anau overnight if they drive themselves, or want visit the nearby glow worm cave, hike the Milford Sound track that requires 1-yr booking ahead. All the parks in New Zealand are free admission but require booking fees for the huts and campsites for camping. 

I ran into a Taiwanese couple at the tour and considered to stay one more day to hike up the Queenstown Gondola hill then ride with them to Dunedin, but my HK travel mates already booked bus tickets, rental car and accommodations at  Dunedin while I was taking the tour. Maybe I will see the couple later in Taiwan.











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Met My Croatia travelmate in suburb Sydney

Image
I finally managed to reunion with my travelmate who I toured Hvar Island in Croatia in 2015 on motorbikes，and we walked the Bicentennial Coastal Walk - Narrabeen Beach to Warriewood Beach, and parts of the Narrabeen Lagoon bush trail in the suburb of Sydney. It was overcast but I can image how pretty the views would be in a sunny day.  https://www.weekendnotes.com/narrabeen-lagoon-bush-trail-walk/ My friend pays $2000 rent for one-bed room apartment within 100 feet from the beach, while i stay in a hostel dorm bed in downtown at $28 per night. Cost of living is high in Sydney for all it has to offer. As another example, without. The beach parking cost Monday to Friday - $6 an hour or $10 all day Weekends - $26 all day.  I went back to city center to check out the china town. I waited 15 minutes in line to taste this popular freshly made puff and had Thai BBQ beef rice for dinner.
Read more

Canberra, capital of Australia

Image
Canberra is the capital of Australia, with many  national monuments, museums and galleries built around a large artificial lake, that reminds me of Washington DC.  We only had time to visit the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery (spotted Capitan Cook's portrait), and the National Museum.   The National Museum’s architecture provides an extraordinary place to explore the rich and diverse stories of Australia and its people. I tried the Museum’s interactive k adventure game played in teams of 4, designed for a time-travelling robot and entered a Time Pod blasting to a selected  location in Australia’s past. Canberra is a great place to enjoy the outdoors, with cycling trails, gardens, parks, bushwalking and nature reserves.
Read more

Lunch Near Taipei Botanical Garden.

Image
I had lunch with my old colleges of Board of Foreign Trade, and caught up with everyone's life and health issues.  I then toured the Taipei Botanical Garden.   The 15-acre Botanical Garden includes over 1,500 plant species and provides a lot of shades from the hot sun in 32c. I found out two buildings historical structures: a Qing Dynasty era Taiwan administration building relocated into the Garden and a herbarium, in the Garden which I did not notice when painting there many time at junior high.
Read more