Traveling with Ellen

  What a relaxing day and definitely needed.  No alarm clock, breakfast at 8 am and back to the room for a rest and frankly, a good nap!   We left at 11 am and took a taxi down into town.   We did our walking and souvenir shopping at a leisurely pace.   Then we stopped and had lunch.   I ordered the calamari.  Delicious but couldn't eat 1/3rd of it.  Wayne ordered it as well and also ordered 1/2 dozen tempura fried oysters.  I had 2and they were better than my calamari.  Since Wayne ate more of my calamari my plate at least it looked like I tried. On to the ice cream store for Wayne. I ordered a kiddie cup of raspberry sorbet and ate a dozen little bites. I just needed a taste. I figured it was ok as we walked around their outdoor market, managed not to buy anything and walked back to the hotel; a nice steep climb. The town is essentially a lakefront tourist holiday destination.  Lots of outdoor sports offered...

  Another early morning.  No surprise here.  Breakfast at 6:30 and on the bus and driving out of the parking lot at 7:15 am.   We were on our way to Milford Sound.   You have to look at a map of the south island of New Zealand to realize there's one road in and out.  There's no direct road and probably for good reason that the beautiful national park would be overrun with so many more people if it were easier to get there.   If you could get there as the crow flies: The real and only way to get there which is 187 miles, and almost 5 hours as it's 2 lanes and several comfort stops.   But, it's worth the trip. The first part of the drive runs beside the beautiful lake Wapatiku and then you enter open grazing area.  Fully 1/3rd of the south island is under conservative control with little population at all.   As you enter the national park, Fjordland, you see sheer cliffs and perfectly clear streams and waterfalls. ...

Goodbye to Mt. Cook Hello to the scenery of the westerly side of the south island of New Zealand.  This part of new Zealand is gorgeous. We were packed and ready to go.  The suitcases were outside our doors and we boarded the bus at 8:30 for our drive to Queenstown. Stops on the way included a lunch stop and then shortly thereafter a stop at a fruit stand where they made their own ice cream.  New Zealand has a flavor they call Hokey Pokey.  It's vanilla with some butterscotch crunchy things in the ice cream.  Very good. We also went to a winery and tasted several New Zealand wines this afternoon There was also a stop at the bridge where the first bungee jumping in the world took place.  I'm not even entertaining the idea of trying this sport. We were lucky enough to see someone actually take a jump! One last stop, at a tourist town where they used to pan for gold.  We walked the streets.  It was like every other recreated tows with stores selling ...