South Island
West Coast
The west coast of the South Island. It's a very rugged landscape. Very beautiful. The winds here are strong and cold. Everything is blowing off the Tasman sea, from Australia. There aren't many settlements here. I didn't see many sheep on these windy cliffs either.
This the Tasman sea at sunset. Next stop is Australia. The coast is gorgeous. It's very rugged, with no real settlements. That is awesome. In California this would be a golf course. Hopefully NZ will stay under populated. The water was freezing. I'm not sure it ever gets warm.
More of the cliffs. It was a typical cloudy winters day; the temperature was around 50F. The fog was on its way in too.
A waterfall. There are millions of these in NZ. I'm heading inland here. My destination is Queenstown. The adrenaline capital of NZ. Everything kooky happens there. Many celebs there in winter I guess. A place to hide.
The worlds longest single lane bridge! Or so I was told. It's something. The South Island has a lot of single lane bridges. Most are both train and car bridges. I never got to see how that works. I would guess that the train has the right-of-way, but I don't know. I know sheep have the right-of-way! This bridge has a 'wide' spot in the middle for passing. Very cool stuff.
NZ's favorite livestock. Because in New Zealand the men are men and the sheep are scared. Batta-bing. The sheep have the right-of-way. I have no idea how many were here but it took a while for them all to pass. The bus driver is on the right, a chap from the UK is on the left. He lives in Australia with his Aussie wife and kids. He and I had a pint in Queenstown. As you can see they drive on the left hand side in NZ.
This is Lake Wanaka. It's just north of Queenstown. It, like most lakes in NZ, was created by glaciers. These are very deep and always cold. The water is fairly clear. Was going to do a tandem skydive here but the weather turned cold and windy. Bummer it would have been neat.
Lake Wanaka again. A fairly large lake really. The mountains go right to the lakes edge. No sandy beaches here. I don't remember if the fishing was good here or not.
Queenstown! How's that for a view. It's from the observation center on the mountain top behind town. A gondola takes you to the top. There's a hiking trail too, but it's HARD. I made it half way and then gave up. It was just too steep. The town is fairly small but has a million things to do. A lot of trendy sort of upscale shops. Not too bad though. Mostly it's about the outdoors and getting out there and doing something. This is the home of bungy jumping. The skiing season began the day I got there. The mountains in the background are the Remarkables. Easy to how they got their name. This is really a great place.
The Remarkables. Probably enough said.
