Great Lakes

While I will always remember Lake Wanaka as the site of my inaugural skydive, the surrounding area is also pretty great – and definitely worth a visit.

On our way from Queenstown to Lake Wanaka on Monday, we (and by “we” I mean Alex) successfully navigated the winding turns of Crown Range Road through the New Zealand countryside. Midway through the drive we arrived at a viewpoint looking out into the Queenstown area and we were not disappointed.

Alex didn't mind the driving with scenery like this!

Pretty windy up here - my hair looks like I was just electrocuted!

We spent the rest of the day determining skydiving logistics (see skydiving post here) and didn’t have energy for much else afterward!

After coming down from our adrenaline high - and sleeping in - on Tuesday Alex and I set out for a short road trip to explore Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.

We could not have asked for a better day and took our time driving through the hills and taking it all in.

Hitting the open road.

Approaching Lake Hawea.

Need those shades to check out that bright blue water!

I mean, how smooth is this water?

We made our way to the Blue Pools and hiked the 30 minute “trek” (seriously, a woman with a cane was walking ahead of us so clearly not a very intense hike) to the swinging bridge.

Turquoise, but very chilly, water!

Not having thought to bring swimsuits, we stayed long enough to take in the surroundings before heading back to the beach at Lake Wanaka for a few hours before dinner.

View of Lake Wanaka from town.

Wednesday was overcast so we geared up for a more intense hike up Rocky Mountain. It was pretty cloudy at the beginning – which provided cooler hiking conditions – but started to clear up a bit as we ascended.

Diamond Lake.

Looking out from the summit of Rocky Mountain.

Checking out the nearby mountains...

...and one of us.

The hike was actually a bit more intense than we anticipated but we felt great to have accomplished the trek before noon! Afterward, we headed back to town for a late lunch and some relaxation. We took a few hours to plan the next few days of our trip through New Zealand and ended with a delicious Japanese meal at Sasanoki, a great reminder of our time in Japan. Tomorrow we are heading up to Franz Joseph – fingers crossed for more clear skies!

Queenstown

We returned to Queenstown around 3:30pm from our Doubtful Sound journey. All of us had fallen asleep on the bus ride back, which was probably for the best since we got a very early start on Saturday (thanks to the sound of the ship engines starting at 6:15 this morning). Sarah, her dad and Judy headed to a pub to grab a drink, I marched over to the Sofitel to resolve the booking issue we had on Thursday. They were pretty helpful this time, gave us our rooms right away and threw in a bunch of free perks for the trouble a couple days ago. I met up with the other three to deliver the good news, including that we’d all been booked in the Sofitel’s hammam for 7pm, after a free two-hour open bar. Not a bad way to conclude the Doubtful Sound adventure!

Pre-steam selfie with the family.

Once we were cleaned up, we walked down to the harbor for some dinner. Though it had been overcast most of the day, the clouds parted just before sunset – giving us some great views.

Sunset on the beach in Queenstown.

The sunset view of Queenstown harbor.

We grabbed some gelato from Mrs. Ferg’s on the way to the hotel, then settled into a deep, restful sleep.

We had a leisurely morning today, culminating with a free breakfast at the Sofitel (their last olive branch for the debacle on Thursday). Our excitement did not last long though, because it was time to say goodbye to Michael and Judy. We helped them load their bags into a cab, then they headed to the airport to begin the long journey back to the US. Sarah and I both really enjoyed the family time over the last 11 days and we think (hope) we showed Michael and Judy a good time while they were with us!

Not long after we parted ways, Sarah and I decided to get a little physical activity and took a hike up Queenstown Hill. We knew it would be a bit of a challenging hike, but neither of us were quite prepared for just how steep the ascent turned out to be. At least the views from the top were as good as promised!

En route to the top we saw a bunch of New Zealand’s Purple Flowering Hebe.

Lake Wakatipu.

Looking down on Queenstown.

We’re pretty sure this was Michael and Judy’s plane (squint and you can see it near the left of the shot). It was definitely Air New Zealand, it was flying west and it took off about the right time. Given that there are only a handful of commercial flights in and out of Queenstown each day, we think we have a good chance of being right!

Once we were back in town, we took a breather on the beach.

We walked around some shops in town for a few hours, but the weather only got worse as the day went on. Just before it started really pouring rain, Sarah and I grabbed some food to take back to our hotel and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we’ll pick up our rental car and drive to Wanaka, the first stop on our mini-road trip up New Zealand’s west coast.

Doubtful Sound

The flight from Christchurch to Queenstown was about as carefree as our last domestic New Zealand flight: no ID checks necessary and no liquid restrictions (which was good because we still had a bottle of rosé from our vineyard tour). The flight was so quick that we barely had a chance to drink our free glass of water before we were descending into the mountains around Queenstown. We all agreed it is one of the most scenic airports we’ve ever seen - and the crystal clear sky didn’t hurt!

Very fun to watch the descent out the window (yes, I am a child when it comes to airplanes).

We grabbed our bags and headed into town. We were supposed to be staying at the Sofitel, but (to make a long, boring story very short) there was a mix-up with our booking and we had to find another place to stay. We settled into the Best Western, one of the only options available last minute, and walked to town to explore and grab dinner.

Downtown Queenstown is very nice – lots of shops, restaurants, bars and very clean – so we strolled around for a bit before eating dinner at Lone Star. As the name might suggest, this is a meat-heavy restaurant, which was just fine with us. I got the “big boy” portion of ribs (because who really wants to order the “little boy” version of anything?). I needed help finishing it…

The “Big Boy” ribs – I think they get their portion sizes from Texas…

We went home full and sleepy, excited for our trip to Doubtful Sound.

On Friday at 8am we began the first leg of our journey to Doubtful Sound. Our friendly bus driver / guide Barry drove us from Queenstown to Manapouri and provided commentary on the beautiful scenery we were driving past. We stopped for coffee half way at a small café that also had some great views of the mountains.

Wonder if this goat will ever realize just how good his daily views are?

Private road across from the café – pretty nice!

After about another hour of driving we were at Manapouri, where we would catch our first boat of the day across Lake Manapouri to its West Arm. We had a picnic lunch here before boarding and enjoyed just taking in the surrounding scenery.

Almost to Manapouri with a few minutes to spare, Barry pulled over so we could take some pictures.

Group shot.

Glad these guys showed up after we ate (they helped themselves to some of our boat-mates' lunches mid-meal - they must be used to people showing up every day I guess).

Our first boat boarded promptly at 12:30 and we set off on the 50 minute voyage across Lake Manapouri. It was VERY windy, but the decision to sit on the top, open deck proved well worth it - the views were amazing (and we're not even at Doubtful Sound yet)!

Making our way across Lake Manapouri. You can tell how windy it was - just look at all the whitecaps!

We stopped to pull into a cove with a waterfall along the way.

The next stage of our journey took us by bus over Wilmot Pass. It was a pretty steep drive - both the ascent and decent had such intense grades that we weren't sure our bus was the right vehicle for the road. Our light-hearted driver Alan reassured us that he "Passed his driving test yesterday!" When we reached the pass we were treated to great views of Doubtful Sound below.

Doubtful Sound.

When we reached the bottom of the very steep hill to Doubtful Sound, we boarded the Fiordland Navigator, our home for the night. The crew gave us a safety briefing then helped us into our not-so-spacious cabin - good thing we'll be spending most of our time on deck looking at the scenery!

Cabin for four - time to REALLY get to know my in-laws!

We left our overnight bags in the cabin, grabbed our cameras and headed out on deck. The Navigator had a nature guide on board to make sure we saw all the important sights, though the spectacular views were hard to miss!

Crusin' on Doubtful Sound.

Looking back on the Sound from the Tasman Sea.

We spotted some seals lounging on a rock (except for those two playing).

After several hours sailing around the Sound (which is a fiord, technically, by the way), we anchored in a calmer area of water to do some kayaking. The Navigator offered three water activities for those interested: tender boat rides (we all passed), kayaking (we all participated) and swimming, which they advertise as "for the brave only." Michael and I decided we were brave enough for the cold water in the fiord - good thing they had hot showers available for us right after we got out!

We anchored in Bradshaw Sound, one of the "arms" off of Doubtful Sound.

Ready for kayaking.

Michael and Judy beat us to it!

Father-in-law / son-in-law bonding.

After we warmed up it was time for dinner. The food was definitely one of our biggest surprises to the upside on the journey - we were expecting to get great views of the Sound, but we didn't expect the food to be so amazing! We ended the evening with a bottle of wine and a few card games before settling into our cozy cabin for the night.

We woke up this morning to overcast skies. Apparently we were quite lucky to have the clear weather yesterday - it rains two out of three days here. Fortunately we didn't get any rain though, just a mistier perspective on the Sound. It had a quieter, eerier feeling as we cruised around this morning and the water looked particularly black due to the depth of the water (over 1,000 feet in many places) and overcast skies.

Cloudy day on Doubtful Sound.

Exploring Hall Arm, the furthest point away from the Tasman Sea on Doubtful Sound.

By 10am we had docked in the harbor at Deep Cove and we disembarked for our return journey to Queenstown. Our cruise around Doubtful Sound was definitely a highlight of our time in New Zealand (and the trip overall)! A real bucket list experience!