Road Trip - South Island - continued

Our visit to Queenstown marked the half-way point in our trip.  After leaving Queenstown we drove south along the shore of the picture-postcard Lake Wakatipu surrounded by the Remarkables mountain range.  Next stop - Fiordland, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound.

Beautiful Lake Wakatipu

Incredible Doubtful Sound!    

Driving to Milford Sound.....

                                               Mirror Lake - along the road to Milford Sound

                                                               Landscape near Milford Sound

                                                     Cruise leaving from Milford Sound

Leaving Fiordland, we drove back via Queenstown to Arrowtown, a quaint historic gold-mining town, with some of its original wooden and stone building - and cute shops.

 From Arrowtown we crossed the Southern Alps via the Haast Pass stopping at Lake Wanaka - destination west coast, Fox Glacier, and Franz Joseph Glacier - with a few stops along the way...

                                                                     

We had an interesting drive up the ragged, twisting, sometimes single lane roads of the west coast.  Had to hold my breath as we drove across a one-lane bridge shared by both motor vehicles and trains.  We stopped at the cities Hokitika (known for its pounamu "greenstone/jade" and craft shops) and Greymouth (known for the Monteith's Brewery among other things), Westport and Punakaiki (known for the spectacular Pancake Rocks).

More adventures along the way.......

                                        Yes - we did walk across the river on this swing bridge. 
                   Luckily, although the  bridge accommodates 15 people - no one else was on it at the time.

On our way to Nelson, we stopped to do some caving - emerging from the "inner earth" via a tunnel to a foggy "Lord of the Rings" type atmosphere. 

Lastly we visited Nelson and Golden Bay - planned on tramping the Abel Tasman or Queen Charlotte tracks - but rainy weather kept us away.

Beautiful scenery, amazing experiences and smooth sailing back across Cook Strait to Wellington - and on home to Wanganui!