New Zealand: Trip of a Lifetime--Millford Sound

Sometimes while planning a trip I come across random "do not miss this" places. And surprisingly, most of them always live up to their hype. Milford sound was one of those places that had to make the list of the must see places in New Zealand. We debated for a while about doing the Doubtful Sound cruise or a Milford Sound cruise. Doubtful Sound, apparently, is a lot more remote and also very unique and less touristy, but it would have been a lot more challenging to get there from Queenstown and not have to do an overnight cruise. So we opted for a very loooong day as a Day Tour to Milford Sound.

We were picked up around 6:20 am!!! In the dark, a close walk from the place where we were staying. We were doing okay at that point as melatonin was doing its wonders. And we could sleep in the tour van. The van fit about 15 people, but everyone was pretty squished. 

The ride was rather long with a few stops to stretch our legs and once to get something to eat. And by long I mean around 3 hours!!!

Once we left the Queenstown area, the scenery changed in front of our eyes. You could see fewer and fewer towns and people and a lot more nature. 

The day was foggy and rather wet, thus adding to the mystique and the atmosphere of being in a remote place. 

It was beautiful already and we weren't even half way to the Milford Sound. 

A quick family picture in the drizzly weather. 

This is how Katya felt about getting back into the van for another hour of driving. 

So to appease her we had to buy some random snacks-hahaha. I hear they were pretty good. 

As we were heading towards the valley and along the many windy roads we started seeing these gorgeous streams of water. They say that all of this looks best on a rainy day, so we were actually very lucky! 

Through the window of the van we observed this beautiful scenery with awe! It looked a lot more amazing in person--and this was something we had never seen before anywhere in the world! 

Finally we arrived at the cruise terminal where they led us to the rather large vessel-haha. Okay, it was a just a boat. 

They gave us packed lunches of sandwiches and chips and apples. We had a nice warm place to eat our food before heading outside to see the waterfalls. 

It was windy and wet outside so we thought we'd better put on our ponchos....but after all, we didn't really end up needing them...except in the moment when Robert got awfully close to the waterfall! 

Katya's hat was so bright it was stopping traffic, literally-haha. It served its purpose of keeping her warm on the boat for sure. But for real, it's just a beautiful picture of her. 

 

Pictures just don't do this place justice... As we traveled out of the sound towards the open water, we could see how beautiful the waterfalls were! 

This is one of the bigger waterfalls and Robert trying to get as wet as possible from all the spray. 

As we approached this particular waterfall, the wind just blew a ton of water towards those who were outside! It was crazy! 

I opted for a much more tame picture, thank you very much. 

Back to Katya with a pink hat. 

And a family picture on a crazy boat ride! 

Out there, somewhere, is open ocean and unlimited possibilities! 

A few more pictures of the waterfalls. 

And look at that--Katya and I with two waterfalls in the background. So much water running down those fjords! 

We always took an opportunity to get a picture of all of us in a non-selfie mode, if someone offered. 

This is how Alex and Mark spent some time on the boat while enjoying the scenery. 

And another peaceful picture of our view. 

After the cruise, we got back to our van and headed home with a lot fewer stops. Everyone was just exhausted from a long day of driving and "cruising". I was so happy we let someone else do the driving on those roads in the dark. And I am also happy that we did make a trip out to Milford Sound, it's truly a unique beautiful place on earth! 

We had so many more adventures in store on the South Island though! 

To Be Continued...

New Zealand: Trip of a Lifetime-Queenstown

A family trip to New Zealand has been on our bucket list for a decade! We just wanted to make it happen! 

We he had to find the right time when all kids were going to be home. Let me tell you, it required a ton of planning ahead--me checking BYU school schedule a year in advance and figuring out when Katya would be going back from her mission and leaving for BYU, Alex finishing his BYU semester and coming home before his mission, plus knowing the spring break schedule for Mark. It was decided that we will have TWO weeks together if we try hard--end of April to middle of May. 

I will spare you all the mundane details, but let's just say, I had to reserve our tickets 11 months in advance and I did it by paying only $500 total roundtrip PLUS Robert and I flew business class on the way back. The secret, my friends, is the fact that I learned the credit card game and made a lot of effort to book the tickets with points. Sure, I could have cashed out the points I used to $900 but that wouldn't have been enough to pay for a roundtrip economy ticket to New Zealand from Raleigh.

On April 26th we departed on our adventure! We flew from Raleigh to Houston at 5 pm (Robert and I got upgraded to business class because I had matched my Delta Platinum status to United fancy status and that helped us get the upgrade!). Then we flew from Houston to Auckland...13 hours!!! We had economy seats, it was tight... especially because our row was the row that could be converted to a sleeper bench, but we wouldn't have fit on it. So it had the cushions behind our calves and we couldn't put our feet under the chair, if that makes sense, only in front of us. Anyway... it was Katya, me and Robert in one row. Alex, Mark and a stinky guy were behind us (poor guys... they didn't sleep at all).

We arrived in Auckland and had to go through a massive border control procedure, probably one of the most thorough ones ever. We waited for our luggage for a very long time (we had one checked suitcase) and then we had to stand in line to go through customs. And the biggest issues was our HIKING BOOTS! Yep...if you have any non-new hiking boots, they have to be absolutely cleaned because they are so afraid to get something infectious into their soil. They didn't check ours but they did ask us if they were new or washed or what. We had over two hours before our flight to Queenstown, so we thought we would be safe....but no. The line took too long, and then we had to walk to the domestic terminal while everything was under construction...so we missed our connecting  flight. Thankfully, Auckland-Queenstown route is a very popular one so they have flights almost every hour or two. 

That’s us, trying to make our flight, transferring from international to the domestic terminal.

We had to wait a bit at the domestic terminal where they had a very interesting set up--no throwing away water situation! It was already April 28th! So we basically skipped April 27. 

The flight Auckland-Queenstown is considered to have one of the most beautiful sceneries on landing. Auckland is on the North Island and we were flying all the way to the South Island to start our expedition:)). 

Only the most skilled pilots are allowed to fly this route because of how tricky it is to land in Queenstown. It's like you land in between the mountains...so the pilots need extra training. 

We arrived in Queenstown after a majestically beautiful landing and quickly headed for our rental car. We had a reserved a Toyota SUV for us at a local company near the airport, but at the same time it turned out that we had a uncancelled reservation with Avis (I must mention for memories sake that taking care of car rental was the task assigned to Robert-hahaha)  right there at the terminal! So while we were waiting for our suitcase, we discussed with Avis the option of getting a rental from them. They gave us an amazing price for a much bigger vehicle that we had reserved from a local company. Sadly, we had to pay a penalty fee for not showing up at the local company, but it was all worth it! 

We got the amazing....drum roll please...HYUNDAI STARIA. When we first saw it in the parking lot, we all laughed so hard! We had never seen anything like that. It felt like a mix of a starship with an ice cream truck. BUT WE LOVED IT! The kids could spread out as it had three rows of seats and we had a ton of room for our luggage! The windows were huge so we could see a ton as passengers too. It had a sliding door, and it was still pretty narrow although spacious. Here is a picture of it from a later day just to give you an idea. 

Robert had to revert quickly to his resourceful British driving days, and so we had no problems along the way.

We had some time to kill before we could check in at our rental house where we would be staying for three nights. So we went out to eat...at a Mexican place-haha. It was pretty good! And the portions were "just enough". We also went to a grocery store to get some basic snacks and fruits/veggies. Man...food is expensive at the grocery stores there! 

Finally, we were able to check in. We rented an adorable spacious place up in the hills, overlooking the lake and the mountains. It was absolutely perfect and gorgeous! It was also most expensive, but I wanted to make sure we get some much needed rest quickly and get over our jet lag. 

We went out to eat and after dinner we strolled over to the park by the lake and took A LOT of pictures. 

I can't even say--here is our sponsor of the trip because technically I was the one who made the flights happen with points-hahaaa.. Well, really, yeah...this trip still cost us an arm and a leg with all the accommodations and amazing activities and food. 

Just trying to stay awake a bit longer. 

Beautiful Katya

Happy together again

Robert was fascinated with this tree. 

It was so beautiful, way more magical than the pictures. 

What was really weird is that it was AUTUMN! It's as if it's the end of October, so the leaves were falling and it was getting chilly. 

It's a nice park right in Queenstown. 

And that is our view from the house in the evening. That's where the airplanes land. 

Mark still had to do homework at some odd hours of the day/night. 

And here is a view from our balcony. Our kids all said that they can totally see themselves living in Queenstown someday! 

The following morning we headed to Glenorchy. It was a beautiful drive! The goal was to go on a hike. 

I must say, it’s a little challenging to write about the trip 8 months after it happened, so some details are hazy.

Hazy like this view-haha. 

To give you a glimpse of how it looked in the area--this a picture I took on our way to Glenorchy. So peaceful! 

On the way to our first hike in New Zealand! 

We took the Routerburn Track that we were told was very doable and scenic. 

The hike was exactly what we wanted! 

Lots of hanging bridges and hilly paths.

Pictures don't do the picturesque views justice.

This is where we turned around. We could have kept going and going and slept in a hut overnight to just keep going, but...we turned around. 

Mark, where are you??? Oh, I am just chilling...

Apparently, we really liked hanging bridges;)

This was the first time we learned about these animals!!! They were everywhere--mostly dead though. 

Yummy pies at a village cafe after the hike. 

In the afternoon, we went on another hike  called Bobs Cove track. 

It was again a really nice and peaceful hike, but much closer to Queenstown. We climbed up a hill and took about 100 pictures there. 

Some of us like pictures more than others. 

I think Katya took at least 50 pictures of just me and Robert. The boys were not embarrassed at all. 

Oh we had some really funny ones! 

I am just happy we have pictures to keep memories alive. 

Look at that view behind us! It was so amazing! 

We did take a ton of family selfies on this trip. 

On the second day we had an adventure to Millford Sound, but that's another post. Here are pictures from our adventure disc golfing after checking out from the rental. 

It was absolutely THE most beautiful and fun and adventurous disc golf course ever! I loved it! 

I mostly walked around and followed everyone else as they played. 

Almost got it by a disc only once though. It literally flew where I was standing as I ducked. 

We decided that it's actually very helpful to take pictures with signs to remember where we were. 

Our goodbye picture in Queenstown on Day 4 of our trip--this is May 1. We all look pretty tired, but by then we were over jet lag, yay! 

To Be Continued.