|
| It really is a fjord! |
The official Country Walkers tour ended after breakfast this day, but Mark and I had persuaded all three of the other walkers to sign on to Nicky’s supplementary day trip down to Milford Sound.
This would involve a four-hour bus ride to the settlement of Milford Sound, which is at the head of the same-named body of water, a fjord on the west coast, and then a trip down the Sound to the ocean on a relatively small excursion vessel.
For some reason, my journal entry for this day is unusually short, with practically no description of the trip. Perhaps I knew that by themselves, the pictures would tell all that was of interest. As a result, the text below is for the most part not linked to the photographs.
We did indeed get some fabulous pictures. The walls of the fjord are very steep, and there are loads of waterfalls pouring down the sides. The excursion boat’s captain was a chatty fellow who kept up a continuous spiel over the public address system, and he told us (several times, as I recall) that there would have been far more waterfalls if the rainfall had been up to par in the preceding days.
From time to time we did see penguins along the rocky shore, and most people oohed and ahhed with appreciation. For us, though, our own exposure to penguins was still in our minds, and we could hardly be impressed. I’ve also gotta say that when you’re looking at them from the same level, they look very different from the view you get from up on this excursion boat, on high.
So we sailed down to the mouth of the Sound, and into the open ocean, where I took lots of pictures of the wild waves beating on the rocks, but none were remotely near satisfactory. A photographic problem mostly, in that there was just too much contrast between the darkness of the water and the brilliance of the waves and spray. A dimmer day or a time of day closer to sunrise or sunset would probably have been the idea.
We made our way back up the bay to the little town we had departed from, and got back onto the bus for our long trip back. Stopped off at a nice place with a view out over the mountains, and a short trail to a very picturesque little gorge, with its profusion of tree-ferns.
| ||||||
| ||||||
|
On our return to Queenstown, Nicky dropped us off at our new hotel, the Novotel, which seems to be a less upscale outlet of the same chain that runs the Sofitel. I found it much more congenial—our room was even a bit seedy, being in the wing that had not yet participated in the upgrading that the place was currently undergoing.
We took leave of Nicky and our fellow walkers, with the usual hugs and handshakes, with the expectation that we would be seeing the walkers from time to time in the next days, since none of us would be leaving Queenstown immediately.
We wandered around the little town for quite a time, looking for a restaurant that might be satisfactory. I saw several that I would have stopped at, but Mark kept the wandering up till we halted at a place just beneath The Boardwalk, the restaurant where we had eaten the night before. This place was called The 19th, or maybe Pier 19, and as I said on the previous day’s page, the food was far superior to what we had had 24 hours earlier.
This restaurant was much smaller than the place upstairs, the staff was attentive even though plainly overworked, the wine that Mark chose was very fine. My appetizer was billed as “smoked” salmon, but it was nothing of the sort. It was more like gravad laks, and it was the best salmon I've had in a very long time, perhaps even since Denmark.
I chose duck confit for my main course, and it was just wonderful. The slices of breast were rare and tender, with crispy fat attached (I ate it!) and the leg was crispy and juicy at the same time, though I would have liked it less salty. Dessert was a wonderful panna cotta, accompanied by small portions of stewed rhubarb and an ice cream that was advertised to contain black pepper, though I could not taste this. A very very fine meal.
Back to the Novotel, where we slept perfectly soundly.
|
| big image, small |
Next day’s pictures, previous day’s pictures. Return to the central New Zealand page; to the central travel page; to my home page.
