Warning! Lots of landscape photography follow!
This helicopter stuff has been funny. Late the night before the helicopter company notified our tour operators the ride was cancelled. Like, at 8:00pm. To give them credit, the tour operator then moved heaven and earth to at least find a way to get me in the sky. Since the whole group is flying back to Auckland this afternoon, I couldn’t get to the Milford Sound and see the cool fjords. How about walking on a glacier?
Uh… sure.
As my guide and I pulled into the parking lot a helicopter took off with a large bucket hung underneath it. When asked the ground manager said they helped out with local fire fighting when requested. That’s kind of cool.
As we flew out the sun was at the opposite of the chopper from me, so the views were good. Note: I’ve tried to crop out any helicopter structure, but sometimes it will be unavoidable, such was when I turned my head and snapped this ground fog as we flew by.
What follows is mostly hills and mountains. I just find it interesting and don’t often get the chance to take pics from above them.
And we were there. The pilot landed and kept the rotors moving as we walked around. After some difficulty, I did NOT fall on my butt.
We returned via a different route.
After landing we visited Kawarau Bridge. It was an original gold mining bridge that they left around after a modern highway bridge was made nearby. Why? Here is the birth of bungee jumping. No, I didn’t attempt it. I’m Cruiseboy, not JumpBoy. We didn’t see anyone jump, but we did get to see a couple do the 43m swing over the river.
Just downstream was the river filmed in Lord of the Rings when the Fellowship encountered the Argonath giant statues.
My guide then took me along gold mining trails for some ground-level landscape shots. Near the end of mining they were using pressurized river water to blast thru the mountains. Very destructive and leaves distinctive markings.
The river (and Lake Wakatipu) color looks almost metallic. That comes from the mica in the surrounding rocks being ground up by glaciers and river erosion, now flowing into the lake.
We flew back to Auckland, slept overnight and then caught up with the ship in Tasmania. This overland field trip to Queenstown was great. I’ve convinced myself I need to return to New Zealand for a more in-depth exploration. Maybe visit Hobbiton?