Day 11- Milford Sound - Biggest Day So Far!

It was a stunning start to the day with this sunrise view from our balcony:

In the morning, we were on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Our hearts have been set on seeing Milford Sound (one of the main highlights of this entire trip), arguably one of the most beautiful places in NZ, sometimes called the 8th wonder of the natural world.

However, we knew being able to visit was always a risk due to the often-fickle weather interfering with us getting there. Transport options are either a 4-hour bus ride (each way) or a short flight from Queenstown. We were in fact scheduled to go tomorrow on a flight, but the weather forecast was calling for rain and the planes can't get in if the weather is rough and even if you get there, if it is foggy, you might not be able to see anything. So, we tried really hard to switch our reservation to today (which we did) but after some more uncertainty, a cancelled flight and a last-minute booking we finally had reservations at 2pm but would the weather behave? We still had to wait until 1pm to confirm the flight. (AAAAAAH!)

In the meantime, (with hope in our hearts that our flight was a go), we had a separate guided tour of Paradise Valley. Our guide, Charles, drove us from Queenstown along the lake into the valley. It is named after the Paradise Duck of which we saw many. Of course, we witnessed more outrageous scenery as well as a bit of site location for LOTR (Lord Of The Rings). The valley was the location for several scenes in the LOTR and Hobbit movies including the locations for Isengard, Saruman's Orc army heading to Helm's Deep and Beorn's house. As you can see, we ran into Gandalf himself - our driver told us there are lots of tours of what he calls "RingNuts" or fanatics of the movies who get dressed up in wizard/hobbit/elf outfits and visit the movie locations. A little too much even for Steve.

After our morning excursion we got the word that our flight into Milford Sound was a go! Woohoo!!! The package we'd booked had a helicopter flight into Milford Sound but also a cruise on the Sound and a landing on one of the glaciers, a real once in a lifetime thrill and bucket-list item.

Then off to Milford Sounds itself. After a week of jaw dropping scenery and superlatives this was by far the most outstanding and memorable. It's a super dramatic glacial valley that is connected out to the Tasman Sea on NZ's west coast. The cruise around the Sound was beautiful but with a fairly stiff breeze and some very moody skies. Sorry the pictures cannot capture the full awesomeness of this remarkable place.

Back onto the helicopter (Steve very happily got the front seat - he's still smiling) for another thrilling ride and great views of the Sound and mountains.

What an unforgettable day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NZ Fun Fact: We have been hearing from a number of locals, especially the cab drivers, some rather lighthearted joking but disparaging remarks about Australians. We asked today's Paradise Valley guide, Charles, about this on-going banter and he provided the following analogy: "New Zealand birds are rather understated such as the kiwi compared to the bright colored and flashy birds of Australia." OK, now we get it - and it might explain the fashion comment I made a couple of days ago.