Down Under – 2/26/14 – Flight to Milford Sound

One of the planned highlights of Queenstown is our excursion to Milford Sound and it is a destination for many Qtown visitors.  While not a tremendous distance away there is the matter of the “Southern Alps” mountain range that stands in the way.  http://www.milford-sound.co.nz/

There are two methods to get there.  First, you can travel by car which takes about 5 hours on windy roads.  This is the most predictable way as the weather will rarely impact the vehicles.  We have chosen to fly to Milford Sound and the weather is a major factor in making the go/no go decision.  Yesterday’s flights, while the weather looked good to us, were cancelled. 

So when we wake up in the AM the weather forecast is much on our minds.  (I must digress a moment to mention that breakfast at the Dairy Hotel is a feast and I settle on fluffy pancakes topped with bacon and pure maple syrup.)  We get notified that weather is perfect and we are picked up and transported to the airport.

We check in and wait to meet our pilot for our twin engine British built plane that looks a lot like an Otter, seating 10.

Becky and Blair, the pilot

We follow this plane thru the mountains

Having cameras hung all over me I get selected to sit in the jumpseat but the yoke has been removed.  We are given headsets but they aren't connected to anything.  FYI, this is a towered field equivalent to Class D in the states.

There are two planes heading to Milford Sound and we take off second and follow the first as we climb through the valleys with towering mountains on either side.  If you look closely at the photos and the movies you should be able to pick out the 1^st plane in front of us.  The scenery is stunningly beautiful, mountains, falls, isolated lakes and we are flying close to the mountain tops and side walls, definitely on purpose.

Here is the video of the flight to Milford Sound:   http://youtu.be/4050S4O2srY It's around 12 minutes long.

We circle out over the Tasman Sea and start our descent into the sound approaching the airport…someplace. 

I can see why the weather needs to be perfect as the mountains are close on either side.  It’s a short runway and I start thinking about what happens on a missed approach? (I find out later there’s a way out the back too).  We land just behind the first plane and there are others behind us.

We take a short walk to the ship that will take us on a ride around the sound. 

Our cruise ship for Milford Sound

Here's a video tour of the cruise ship:  http://youtu.be/ShLefLQ2cAw

Looking back towards the airport

The demographics on this trip are very different as the largest population group is Asian, from China, Japan and Korea.  The ship leaves and begins its cruise through the sound.

The ship hugs the coastline and does a maneuver that our Antarctic ship did…when he wants to show us a falls he would nose the bow right up to the wall, so close that those in the bow got wet…he does this several times. 

We do this all the way until we reach the Tasman Sea and then the return trip covers the other side of the sound including an even bigger falls.

John and I spend a lot of time on the stern deck taking pictures for many of the Asian guests.  They do some amazing poses.

Here's the video: http://youtu.be/Y0g5UFOhdZc

John made a few million yen doing this

We glide by some lonely seals on the way back.  http://youtu.be/MkHaReH5fKE

Ringing the bell!

Another great view

We visit Sterling Falls, another even larger falls: http://youtu.be/YJtNr2tOqrk

Approaching Sterling Falls

Back to dock and our pilot is waiting and in a few short minutes we are airborne again climbing through the sound and returning via a different mountain route. 

Just after we takeoff

GoPro selfie

We learn that there is a cool hiking trip where you hike from hut to hut and are met with a hot meal and a warm bed…perhaps another trip.

Video of the flight from Milford Sound back to Queenstown:  http://youtu.be/ePFJ-OWWpdI

Back to the hotel, lunch and John and I decide to parasail from the mountain behind Queenstown.  So we assemble everyone to take the cable car ride up but first we decide to visit a bird sanctuary that was built by a local businessman who was dedicated to conservation.  It was an interesting little park but the highlight was supposed to be getting to see some actual Kiwi birds who are only active at night…we head into this darkened building, politely take our seats against the wall and soon all the others flock in front of us and press their noses to the glass…a few dark blobs are visible milling around and that’s enough Kiwi viewing for us…onward up the cable car.

Unfortunately when we get to the top we find that the parasail concession is closed due to high wind, we are unable to attempt to cheat death, we eat our consolation ice cream and head back down.  Dinner is at Botswana Butchery.  http://www.botswanabutchery.co.nz/