This weekend I spent easter in Queenstown, which is on the south island of New Zealand. Queenstown is the self-proclaimed adventure capital of New Zealand. It's famous for the first legal bungy jump. And now it has a ton of them, plus lots of skydiving, white-water rafting, heli-skiing, canyoning, river surfing, among other things. It's also a big skiing resort town in the winter, so it reminded me a lot of Whistler, with lots of chateau-like accomodations scattered around the town.

Air New Zealand got both the Friday and the Monday off for easter, so I was able to go down for about 3 days and nights. This is good, because it's quite a ways away (about a 2 hour flight). I got a window seat for the flight down, and it was very cool flying over the mountains on the south island. It did not seem as impressive as flying over the Rocky Mountains on a clear day, even though I think the south islands mountains are similar in height to the Rockies (around 3500m high).

So, on Friday night, I just wandered around Queenstown a bit. Went into a few of the many day adventure shops and asked around about the activities. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. Since I have already been bungy jumping, skydiving, and white-water rafting, which I think are the highlights in Queenstown, I wanted to try something different. I have never heard of the river surfing though, at least until I started looking into Queenstown. So, I thought that sounded like something interesting.

In river surfing, basically you get a wet suit, flippers, a helmet, and a body or boogie board, and then you throw yourself into grade 1-4 rapids going down a river. Basically you end up doing the same thing that you would do if you went whitewater rafting, although instead of being in a raft paddling, your in the water kicking for your life.

So I looked around, and asked about the different operators. I think there were 3 or 4, different companies, and they all went on the same stretch of river. Unfortunately is was only about a grade 2-3 as the south island is having a bit of a drought this year. So, in the end, I decided on a company called "Serious Fun!", as this was the one most people seem to give the best ratings.

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning, and was able to walk around a see a bit of the lake Wakatipu, which surronds Queenstown before meeting for river surfing at 9am. I ended up with 4 guys and 1 girl, all from Ireland. They were cool and all pretty up for the river surfing, so that made it fun.

So 1/2 drive out to the river, geared up, and then we were into the river. I expected it to be quite cold, but it was actually not bad at all. It was about 15C out, slightly overcast, but not raining that day. I still expected the water to be quite chilly, and wore gloves on the first trip, but ended up taking them off for the second as they were not really required.

So only about 10 minutes of training, in which basically the only important thing to remember was to watch the guide in front and when he points in a certain direction then you need to point your board in the same direction, and then kick like hell in order to go in that direction. I assume this was to stay out of the dangerous rapids and sharp rocks.

The river surfing was pretty much what I expected. The first run down was pretty slow as we stopped or slowed down in quite a few places so the guides could tell us about what was coming up and what to do etc. It was pretty fun though. We went through about 4 or 5 major rapid segments on the Kawarau River. They had names like Roller Coaster, Man Eater, Dead Cow, and Roaring Meg, named after a woman who "serviced" the miners in the old days.

The only bad part about it, and it was quite a bit annoying, was that when we finally did get to some very big rapids, I had to close my eyes because of my contacts. I almost lost one at the very beginning of the trip, and was thus quite annoyed with them. So, I was missing a lot of the fun and also not taking the rapids as good as I probably could have if I was able to keep my eyes open more. At least I managed to stay on my board, well most of the time anyways. But instead of being able to see the next wave and duck under it or ride it, I just found myself having to close my eyes and kinda let the wave take me. Oh well, it was still a lot of good fun.

So the first run ended up being a training run, as afterwards you get back into the van and they bring you upsteam to do it all over again. This time though they bring you a little further upstream so you can take the biggest baddest rapid that you didn't do the first time as you were training. The second run was by far and away much better than the first. I think this is because you kind of know what to expect and feel more confident and concentrate a lot more on doing tricks and exploring the waves rather that just trying to hold onto your board and not get mangled by the rapids.

There were two cool tricks that they tried to teach us how to do as well. The first was simply surfing a wave. The idea was to approach it from an angle and then point yourself back up-river and kick hard enough to actually get up onto the wave and once on the wave it's basically really easy to stay there in the current. I was not able to master this though. I think my legs were not strong enough or technique needed work, but each time I tried I just kept going down the river. Actually no one that day was able to do this, although I think there was only myself and one (possible) two others trying.

The other trick was called "squirting". This is a spot in the river where multiple river currents are coming together from two or more directions. Where these water currents meet each other, they have nowhere else to go but down. In these spots, just under the surface, there is a major undertow or current that goes straight down. So, what you try to do, is paddle yourself up to this section of the river, and then when you get into the right spot, you try to push your board under the surface enough so that it gets caught in the undertow. Once your board gets caught in the undertow, then you hold on tight and the current will take you straight down, under the water, and then spit you out somewhere downstream. I was only able to "sqirt" once... no jokes please. It was pretty cool, but short, was probably only underwater for a couple of seconds. I tried quite few times more, but could not seem to master it. Again, I think if my arms were stronger and I had more experience in picking the spots, it would be easier. Oh well, still tons of fun.

Oh, and we also did some rock jumping in a couple of spots. But the weird thing with that was that you had to wear you flippers and take your board with you. This was because as soon as you hit the water, you were being swept along down river. Never had to climb up a cliff and jump in flippers before. Strange. So any ways, that provided a good 4 hours of adventure for the morning.

After getting back to Queenstown and grabing some lunch, I was planning on going for a good long hike for the rest of the day. However, after an hour of rest, I realized that the river-surfing had taken a lot more out of me than I first thought. My legs were a little sore, and my upper body was as well. I guess using flippers makes you use muscle you don't normally use. So instead, I decided to take the scenic tram up to the top of one of the smaller mountains basically right in Queenstown.

But of course, like everything else in Queenstown, even an innocent seeming tram up a mountain is centered around adventure. With the ticket for the tram up the mountain, you can also combine it with these "natural" go-cart tracks. This is basically a couple of concrete tracks down the moutain-side that you can go down on non-powered go-carts. Gravity takes care of the engine requirements. So, I thought what the heck, and bought 3 rides down with the price of my tram ticket.

The way up on the tram was very very steep. So steep, that at one point, almost at the top of the mountain, there is actually a bungy jump platform that basically sticks out from the mountain far anough that people can bungy off the side of the mountain! Crazy!! I didn't see anyone jumping the whole time I was up there, but needless to say I didn't go anywhere near it.

So, I got to the top of the tram, and first enjoyed the amazing view of Queenstown, the lake, mountains, and surounding area. It had a very nice observation deck, that wrapped all around the tram building. Because of the slope of the mountain as well, the observation deck itself was probably already about 6 stories above where it was anchored to the mountain. This gave a perfect, un-obstructed view. Very nice. And of course the go-carts were roaring around under me, so had to get to them.

To get to the top of the go-cart run, you take another short chair-lift to a spot a little further up the mountain-side. From here you don a funny helmet, get in a little gocart thing and point yourself down the hill. There are two tracks, a "scenic" track, and a "racing" track. Your first run of the day has got to be down the scenic track, so that was my first one. And I was actually surprised how fast it was! You actually had to use the brakes quite a bit or you would tip over or go off the track. I was very pleased thinking if this is the easy one the fast must be awsome. So after a pretty fun first run, it was back up to the top and down the racing track.

This one was actually pretty similar to the first track. The only difference is that there are a few places on the track where you go down really big hills. Similar to big dips on water slides. They were fun, but because of the curves in the track you still had to brake in order to take the corners.

However, the very last hill was really big and quite fun going down. I got lots of pics and videos of people coming down the last really big hill. Most would take it really slow. I did not, of course. So, one more ride down the racing track and then went up one last time and walked down so I could watch others and take some pictures. All in all a fun little distraction.

After that I went looking around for what I was going to do the next day (Sunday). I found out that there was a very famous and supposidly very nice spot called Milford Sound that a lot of people go on day-trips from Queenstown. Only problem was that it was almost 4-5 hours away. But after a couple of shops, and people raving about it, it seemed like the thing to do.

I was also told that it can be a little over-touristy because there are tons of day-trip buses that take hordes of people from Queentown to Milford Sound, and they all end up arriving at the same time. So then you get tons of people packed onto the same boat cruise through the Sound. So, I was told that it's much more enjoyable if you avoid the cruises between noon to 2pm, when all the hordes are there. So I wanted to arrive before them, so I decided that in order to do that I needed to leave Queenstown at about 5am. That meant up about 4am!

So, in order to get a decent amount of rest, I was in bed at about 8pm on the Saturday night. Wait a minute?... 8pm!! Yeah, that right, I was in bed at 8pm and up at 4am on a Saturday night!! Umm... has hell frozen over? I can't remember time when I was in bed "BEFORE" 4 am on a Saturday night on previous contracts. At least in a new city any ways. It's not like there was nothing to do either. They had one gay bar in town, and I even scoped it out a bit during the day. But when it came to deciding what to do, it didn't even come into the play. My, how my priorities have changed!

So any ways, I was up at about 4am and off on the road hours before the sun even came up! Actually it was a little freaky driving at night, as it was pretty much pitch black. The road also went through forest with absolutely no signs of mankind, no lights, nothing. A little eerie. It kinda reminded me of those cheap horror movies where people are driving down little pitch black roads, trees closing in from either side, and then all of sudden an alien or an axe murderer or something jumps out onto the road.

So, of course I am thinking about this, and the road is winding around feeling very similar... and what happens? All of sudden I drive by this guy wearing a hoodie, with the hood up, walking on the side of the road (my side), in the opposite direction. Holy freak me out!! I just about jumped out of my seat! I'm lucky, I don't think I scare as easily as most people, because I think anyone else would have drove right into the ditch or something. As it was, it completely freaked me out.

I think you had to be there. Or, you have to think like when you were a kid and you convinced yourself that someone was under your bed or in the closet, and that you were sure you could hear them moving around under the bed. And then you reach down to check if there is someone there and because you have worked you mind up so much, and basically scared yourself into thinking there is someone there, that when you reach down under the bed, if someone was to actually be under there you would just "FREAK" out. Well this is kind of what that was like. My mind was thinking over all these scary horror-movie things that could happen and all of sudden there is this weirdo walking in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road. Man it was freaky!

After recovering from the heart attack, it was a pretty uneventful drive for about 2 hours, until the sun came up. This was around Te Anau. Got some pictures of the sunrise, and then started the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound. According to guide books there was a few cool sites on this two hour drive, so my timing was perfect.

The first brief stop was at Eglinton Valley. This is basically a picturesque stop on the road where you can see all the way down a long valley to the distant snow-capped mountains. It was an interesting view, but that was about it. I didn't stay too long either, because there was already 3 cars of oriental tourist, with cameras clicking away, also stopped. I was worried that if there were already this many people on the road at 7:30 in the morning, the boats at Milford Sound might be over-crowded. It was easter weekend after-all and I think most people in New Zealand got both the Friday and Monday off.

Back in the car, and to the next stop, which was at Mirror Lakes. Again, simply a nice little stop on the side of the road where there is a valley with the mountains in the background, and the thus named Mirror Lakes. These are basically very very clear, tiny little lakes (more like ponds in my opinion), kinda nesteled into the valley in such a way that the mountains (and any surrondings) are reflected on the surface on the lakes. It's pretty crystal clear reflections, and the water is very clear and for the most parts undisturbed. There were a few ducks disturbing the prestine surface of the lakes, much to the dismay of the forementioned photographers.

Back on the road to Milford Sound. All the way from Te Anau, the drive had been winding it's way from open fields, cows, sheep, farms, trees, etc. to more and more high mountains and valleys. The road slowly begins to wind though valleys surronded by massive mountains. Many of the mountain are very very steep as well. Some completely vertical. I'm guessing that I am getting to the valleys that were carved out by glaciers in the last ice age. I started passing lakes and steep cliff faces, waterfalls (with crystal clear water, when you examined them closely), and forest backdropped with snow-capped mountains.

Milford Sound is not actually a "sound", as I learned on my boat trip (coming later). A "sound" is an old river valley that was flooded by the ocean after the last ice-age ended causing the oceans to rise. A "fjord" is an old glacier bed, carved out by the glacier retreating at the end of the last ice-age. The the ocean floods it as well when the ocean rises, forming the fjord. And Milford Sound is actually a fjord.

This is why I started to see very very steep mountains. A fjord is very deep, and has very steep sides to both the mountains above and the ocean below. I guess this is caused by the motion of the glacier as it moves along. This, combined with the fact that Milford Sound is the wettest spot in New Zealand, means waterfalls are also abundent. Cool! Unfortunately, as I said, it was unseasonably dry on the south island, so even the wettest spo in NZ was as wet as it usually is. There were still tons of water falls, but not as many as I could imaging after a big rainfall. That would be amazing!

The next thing that was interesting on the drive, and probably what I found most facinating all day was the Homer Tunnel. One minute I was driving along this valley with steep cliff faces on either side, then all of a sudden, there is a sheer rock face in front of me as well. I had got to the Homer tunnel. This is a one direction tunnel, with alternating 15 minutes intervals, for traffic in each direction. The very cool thing is that it goes straight into the mountain side, which is pure rock, no vegetation what so ever, and that the mountain looks to go up about about 300ft, almost completely vertical, above the tunnel.

Driving through the tunnel was very cool as well. From the internet; "The tunnel is 1200 meters long, and lays about 900 meters above the sea level. It drops in 1:11 ratio, so it's about 9% downhill." Because the mountain is completely rock too, there is no finished work (beams, concreate, etc) like we are used to seeing in tunnels. It's just plain exposed rock walls on either side of the tunnel. Very cool looking. Also kinda of strange driving down through a rock tunnel at such an angle. Almost felt like I was driving into a deep mine rock quarry or something. Very cool.

The all of a sudden you emerge into a similar valley that you left from, only this time you are at the very top of the valley, looking down into it from above. It was breathe taking, and very unexpected. You would think if you are going down the entire drive (through the tunnel), that you will end at the bottom of something. So coming out of the tunnel at the very top of a huge valley, with mountains towering on either side was simply amazing. This was one of the good things about not having much rain. I was able to see some of these amazing views that normally you would never be able to see, if the weather was it's normal rainy self.

I stopped on the side of the road as soon as I was able and took some pictures. Again I was amazed at the sheer rock face of the mountain on this side as well. The placement of the tunnel was really facinating. I got some better pictures on the way back though, as I had to stop and wait for 5-10 minutes for the traffic signal.

Only a very short distance from the Homer Tunnel, was the next stop at the Chasm. This was basically a short walk into the woods where there was some cool rock formation carved out by a river / waterfalls / gorge. It was interesting, but I was very upset that there were not paths that could provide better viewing of the waterfalls. You could kind of see them from above and between rocks, and they looked very impressive. But there was nowhere on the path where you could get a real good view of them. My guess is the area is to vertical and rocks all over in weird places, with drops too big, etc. that a path could not be made. Oh well. A little dissapointing.

So finally, just before 10am, I made it to Milford Sound. Caught the 10am boat tour and was very glad that the boat was not very crowded at all. It was not even full. It was one of the smaller boats in the harbour, two decks, but it only about 30-40 people on it, so very nice. Then it was a 2 hour tour of Milford Sound. They didn't give you very much information or commentary, which I thought was kinda a rip-off, but the scenery was pretty cool. Not amazing cool, but quite peaceful cool, if there is such a thing? Hard to explain, but it was very calming and relaxing to sail through these huge rocks and the calm ocean water together. The ocean waves are broken by a shallow sand? bar at the entrance to the fjord.

The best parts were the most famous mountain Mitre Peak, which is apparently the most photographed mountain in New Zealand, and the waterfalls. There were only two big waterfalls, but in one of them, and one of the smaller waterfalls the boat actually pulls right up close to rock wall that it hits the mountain. Then, people in the front of the boat can actually hold out cups to get water from the falls, and of course get completely soaked in the process. This was very cool. It shows how steep both the mountain face and the rock beneath the surface is that a big tour boat can get close enough to hit the wall.

In the pictures above is the waterfall we got right underneath, and in the picture to the left you can see the kids in the front of the boat, just as it's pulling up to the falls. This is right before I had to go inside to keep from getting my camera wet. It was very cool though.

I was a little disappointing in the sea life though. There is supposed to be lots of dolphins, seals, etc. But we only saw a couple of playful otters, and two seals on a distant rock. Oh well.

One of the otters was actually swimming around and playing with these kayakers that we pulled up alongside. I guess one of the kayakers was the captains brother, so they had a very informal conversation, like what they were doing for dinner or something like that. Very funny. Would have been cool to be in a kayak and that close to a playful otter though. Another time hopefully.

Not much other adventure on the cruise, as I said, it was mostly relaxing. It was worth the trip though, especially combined with the other sights along the way.

Since I was so early too, I was able to take a couple of side stops on the way back. Best was the Humboldt Falls. This was about 1/2 hour hike into the woods from a side gravel road I just decided to explore on the way back. It was very very high. Only problem was the viewing platform was very far away from the falls, so not able to get up close and view. There was a worn trail off the path going down to the falls, but I could see the distance to the river and it would have take ant least an hour just to get down to the river, and then another hour or more to get to the base of falls.

So the return trip was far longer than I had time for. So just explored a couple more spots on the river along the road.

After that, it was a four hour drive back to Queenstown and pretty much dinner and in bed, because Monday I had to get up early again for my flight back to Auckland. So that was easter weekend in Queenstown. Expensive, but a lot of fun.