Arrowtown, NZ - Day two

The good news is that our farm stay went really well. The bad news is that now the girls want to live on a farm. We tried to convince the owners to delegate some manual labor to give a true farm experience but it didn't pan out. The kids loved the independence of waking up and heading outside to feed carrots to the horses. 

In addition to the horses, the farm has two mini donkeys, two ponies, several ducks, a herd of cattle and a herd of sheep. They also have two very friendly dogs. I have to confess the dogs were a significant factor in my choice of Redlands Country Lodge. We miss Monty a ton! 

Emily loved the novelty of having a dog that actually fetched. She ran around all day throwing the ball for Sophie and neither of them ever tired of it. For an extra challenge she even started bouncing on a trampoline while throwing a ball to the dog. I tell you, she was in heaven - and so were we.

The owner of the farm used to run a riding school on the premises. We happened to catch her while she was working out one of the horses and she was kind enough to take Emily for a walk around the ring. It turns out this horse was a retired racehorse. Pretty cool. Tess preferred to watch from a safe distance. I would love to take these girls out to Arizona to the Circle Z ranch some day. Frankly, with as well as they traveled on this trip I began to imagine a lot of places I'd love to take them.

After a fun farm morning we decided to go check out the famous Karawarau Bridge bungy jump site. This was the first commercial bungy site (back in 1988) and it remains one of the most beautiful. Brian decided to give it a try because when in Queenstown that is just what you do. I opted to do the much tamer zip line. Our kids greeted both of us like returning heroes. As you'll see from the professional photos below Brian also chose to do the dunk option. I'm also amazed that Brian doesn't look remotely nervous. Check out the full video here.

 This is the view back to the Kawarau bridge.

The girls are still making fairy houses wherever we go. 

As if all of that wasn't enough for a beautiful New Zealand day we topped it all off with an amazing lunch at a local vineyard bistro. This was hands down the best meal we have had since leaving the US. I had written off fine food and wine as something we wouldn't get the chance to do while traveling with kids. To our delight, the Amisfield Winery happily served us a multicourse, locally sourced gourmet meal in a stunning setting while also happily allowing our kids to sit with us. They  even provided a boxed lunch of grilled ham and cheese, fruit, yogurt and chocolate mousse for the kids. 

In nicer weather you can sit outside by the fountain and let the kids play on the grass. As it was, we stayed inside while it drizzled, enjoyed the fire and the view and the kids dipped into the toy bin for distractions. I wish more restaurants would take this kind of an approach. 

When the skies cleared up we even had a little impromptu Bocci lesson. All in all, we had another amazing day in a long string of amazing days.

Arrowtown, NZ

Yesterday we hit the road again and drove the two hours from Te Anau on to Arrowtown the last location of our trip.  We saw the forecast called for a light rain changing into a heavy soaking rain. To our surprise we had sun all morning so we stopped to take a lot of pictures in case that was the last sun we saw for the week.

We drove through expansive valleys ringed with mountains and filled with sheep.

It felt good to arrive back at the beautiful Lake Wakapitu. The Queenstown area really floors me.

For the last three nights of our trip we are staying at a farm stay just fifteen minutes out of Queenstown near the historic town of Arrowtown. I assume we will still drive into Queenstown most days but we were surprised to see that Arrowtown is lovely in its own right. We ate a delicious lunch at Bonjour - where Brian and I got croque madames and the girls gobbled up some crepes.

Arrowtown really shines in the fall and we seemed to have hit it right at the peak. I look forward to seeing more of it over these next days.

Milford Sound, NZ

The Fiordland coast of New Zealand is one of the wettest parts of the world. The air comes in over the Tasman Sea and rises when it hits the steep mountains where it condenses and turns into rain. Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound each average over six meters of rain per year. That's over five times as much rain as Boston gets and we are not a particularly dry city. As much as ten inches of rain can fall in a single day. It rains roughly half the days so we figured that between two days on Doubtful and one on Milford we would be able to get some chance to see a fiord in clear weather. 

Having gotten our clear day on Doubtful we felt open to seeing Milford in any kind of weather.

One advantage of seeing the area in the rain is the waterfalls come out. There are only two permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound but when it rains dozens more appear within hours.

The mountains along the fiord are made of granite and show very little erosion despite all the water.   Glaciers carved their rugged shapes but the flow of water has yet to wear them down. What the water does do is take away all the topsoil. The rugged vegetation hangs on a whole network of moss but the sides are littered with stretches of bare rock where "tree avalanches" have occurred taking down all the vegetation in their path.

The rainwater picks up tannins from the trees leaving it a dark tea color. This water accumulates on top of the sea water and reduces the light below in much the way sunglasses do. This makes for an unusual marine environment where deep water corals and fish can be seen at much shallower depths. This adds to the ecological significance of the area. 

The waterfalls crash down from spectacular heights. Our boat took us close up to the base of some where the daring could get quite wet.

Brian and I took turns at the top of the boat heading out in each break in the weather or bundling up and bringing our waterproof camera.

Our girls spent a lot of time inside. Unfortunately they both got car sick on the two hour drive in to the fiord so they weren't nearly as chipper as on the last trip. 

They perked up when we came across more fur seals. This time we got to see them out swimming. 

They were also delighted to see four separate rainbows.

Just as we disembarked the blue sky broke through. 

On the way home we relaxed a little more on the drive. With some food and medicine in their bellies the girls did better, and without the deadline of meeting the boat Brian and I were able to look around and pull off at a variety of different points.

We encountered this curious kea in one parking lot. This green native parrot is known for being sneaky and smart. I'm glad we got to see it up close but we did not feed it.

We passed beautiful aquamarine pools.

We also admired the distinctive green tinge of the local rock. 

We stopped off at some amazing roadside campgrounds. I can see how traveling around the country that way could be a lot of fun. It would be amazing to see some of these views at sunset and sunrise. Still, I'm glad we minimized our overall driving for the sake of the kids. 

Te Anau, NZ

After returning from Doubtful Sound we were ready for a low key day in the remote town of Te Anau. We began by checking out a short section of the Kepler Track - one of New Zealand's nine great walks. Some day I'd love to return and do one of the multi-day great walks. I love the idea of getting high up into the mountains and staying in alpine huts but for now I'm happy to just explore along the edges.

This section of the Kepler Track includes one of New Zealand's iconic swing bridges.

It then takes you along a flat wide path through a beautiful, mossy rainforest environment. 

Occasionally the path opened up to some river views.

We enjoyed being outside in the damp forest listening to the birds sing and admiring the abundance of plant life.

After going along with our activity for the morning the girls chose our next outing - a bike ride around town on a funky double bike.

Even in town we saw wonderful natural things like this beautifully graphic bush.

In the afternoon we headed out on Lake Te Anau for an outing to the Glowworm Caves. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos in the caves themselves but we did get a few good views from the boat ride. 

The girls were nervous at first to go into the cave. It was actually quite dark, wet, and loud. The river comes roaring through the cave actively carving out the limestone sides. We walked on a metal walkway along the sides until we came to a boat. From there we turned out our lights and floated silently into the Glowworm Grotto where hundreds of tiny worms glowed in little blue green dots above our heads. They looked a lot like stars. The worms actually extrude sticky threads of silk not unlike a spider's web. The glow of their light attracts bugs and then the liquid on the threads immobilizes their prey allowing them to draw it up and consume it. We ended up finding it really cool. 

Between these activities and some surprisingly great fish and chips from the local food truck it turned out to be quite a nice, relaxing day.