Te Anau & Milford Sound, NZ

From Queenstown we drove to Te Anau, a town at the shore of Lake Te Anau with Mt. Luxmore and the Murchison mountains in the background.

Photo: Lake Te Anau shore

We made a day trip to Milford Sound, about 2 1/2 hours from Te Anau.

Photo: on the road to Milford Sound

While stopping along the road, we encountered a Kea bird, a large species of parrot. This curious and intelligent bird apparently lives only on the South Island of New Zealand.  They have a reputation of being quite destructive, and given enough time, may chew up the valve stems of parked cars. 

Photo: This Kea tried to get into our rental car.

Photo: close-up of Kea

This short video clip shows two Keas "exploring" a police car: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBdvRCkCNfo

Photo: Milford Sound

Queenstown, NZ

We started our New Zealand trip at Queenstown, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its location at the edge of Lake Wakatipu and being surrounded by the mountains of the Southern Alps greatly contribute to its charm.

We had a rental car waiting for us and it did not take long to get used to driving on the left side of the road. Of course, we took the gondola up Skyline mountain and also visited the Kiwi Birdlife Park, where we saw Kiwis moving around in their nocturnal habitat. 

One of our side trips was to Arrowtown, a charming village from the 1860's gold rush period. By that time we had gotten used to NZ prices and the NZ$ 32.00 plate of fish and chips was  no longer a shock.