“The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet." - J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Sailing into Milford Sound at daybreak, our cruise ship passed the majestic waterfalls and giant cliffs and peaks that surround this fjord, as we were led by some leaping dolphins and laughed at by some seals on the shore. Thirteen of us stood on a deck, waiting for a small boat to come alongside and let us step off into an entirely different journey. As our little boat chugged to a pier in the sound, the cruise ship turned and left us behind.
We boarded a van, and for the next two days, we made our way across the South Island of New Zealand, stopping frequently to take in one magnificent sight after another. We were in Lord of the Rings country, traveling through Fjordland National Park. Surrounded by snow-capped peaks and majestic mountains, my jaw stayed open for hours as I marveled at some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. The first stop involved a short walk in the woods, accompanied by the sound of roaring water. It wasn't until I turned a corner and looked down that I saw the source of the sound: a giant chasm in the earth, with water rushing through and around the rocks that the water had carved into amazing shapes.
From there, we headed to waterfalls, mountains, mirror lakes, and other visions to a mountain where we rode up a gondola to see them all from above. We also watched while a young man bungy jumped from a platform next to the gondola. The piercing scream was how we knew he'd jumped.
From there, we settled for the night into Queenstown, a pretty resort town on a lovely lake. Were it not for the unique Remarkables mountains that surrounded us, it probably could have been a resort town anywhere in the world, but it certainly had its charms.
The next day, we set back out, this time through different terrain. We'd left behind the rugged peaks for green mountains and valleys, and herds of sheep, cows and deer (here in NZ, deer are raised like livestock, in large fenced areas where they roam and graze). We stopped to watch more bungy jumping, this time into a deep river gorge. We then made stops in a number of charming small towns, passing through idyllic countryside until we reached Dunedin, a lovely town on the east coast of New Zealand. After a stroll around town, we rejoined the cruise ship, where we set sail up the eastern coastline.
We'd crossed from the west to the east coast at a leisurely pace in only two days, to give some idea of the width of this island. It was a spectacular trip.
Next: Christchurch, New Zealand.
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