New Zealand

We slept very soundly last night and didn’t rise until after 9:00 am. It was a beautiful morning here in Blanket Bay.

We made it to the dining room around 10:00 am and had a very nice breakfast.

After breakfast we went for a walk around the property, which was very pleasant. We then returned to our room to get ready for our departure to Milford Sound and the surrounding area. We had chartered a helicopter, which arrived just before 1:00 pm.

By this stage the wind had picked up quite a bit so we knew we’d be in for a bumpy ride, especially through the valleys and up over the mountain ridges (of which there were many!).

The scenery on the way to Milford Sound was spectacular.

We landed at the Milford Sound airport, and were surprised by how much air traffic there was (even though our pilot told us that this was a relatively quiet time). We hopped out of the helicopter and had a nice walk around Milford Sound.

We returned to the helicopter and flew up the Sound toward the Tasman Sea.

We then turned around and headed back through Cleddau Valley and over Mount Tutoko. All the way, the scenery was breathtaking.

We flew over Mount Earnslaw and dropped into the valley below, where we landed in a small clearing to get a close-up look at Gilkison Falls, at the head of the Earnslaw Burn. This is a beautiful spot and many people make the 6-8 hour trek in to see it (especially if they are Tolkien fans since this area features heavily in the Tolkien movies). It’s certainly much easier to fly in!

After getting some photos, we hopped back in the helicopter for the trip back to Blanket Bay.

We landed back at Blanket Bay at around 2:30 pm. We said goodbye to our pilot, headed inside, and went straight to the bar to get a ginger ale (to settle down some of the motion sickness from the rather turbulent flight!).

With some free time on our hands, we then decided to go downstairs to the games room, where we played darts, pool, and table-top shuffleboard. After all of this frivolity, we headed upstairs to the lounge. We sat and enjoyed the view and snacked on a very nice selection of cheeses.

We spent the rest of the afternoon variously reading, resting, going for a run, and having a swim. It did seem a bit chilly to be swimming outside but it was very nice once we were in the water.

Our next stop was dinner so we got changed and headed to the dining room. We opted to eat inside tonight, since it was a bit cold to eat outside (although some people did!). Once again, the meal was incredible. We started with (a few!) drinks and canapés, before going on to the main meal.

Tomorrow we will be up early for the drive back to Queenstown airport to catch a flight to Auckland, where we’ll meet our friends Peter and Joy (who are flying in from Melbourne tomorrow afternoon). We’ll be spending one night in Auckland and then driving down to Lake Taupo on Thursday morning.