Monday morning we woke up REALLY early to drive up to Milford Sound for a 10:30am boat cruise through the sound and out to the open ocean.We were excited because so far we had seen fantastic weather in NZ and were crossing our fingers for one of the 100 days of sunshine in the sound (because otherwise it's overcast and rainy!).
The drive to Milford is along 2 hours of the only road out there. There are no towns, but a few campgrounds and the odd farm house along the way. Winding road, mountains, "no stopping for next 1km" signs (due to potential rockfalls?) ... it WAS an adventure! And the sun rose while we were driving, it was amazing to see the days' first light hit the mountains right beside us :)
There is also a mandatory 1km tunnel that you have to drive through about 30 minutes out from the sound. It's on a 10% slope - or something, Grant knows - anyways going in it's sloped toward the sound so we were glad the only ice we saw was on the walls!! Generally there were signs everywhere for ice/grit, but we only saw a handful of small black ice patches for our whole trip. Now that we're home, Andrea tells us that their trip up there (one week earlier) was snowy and their coach bus had their chains on the tires! We REALLY lucked out and we know it! We arrived at the sound and had brekkie at the cafe there and boarded our boat.
It was so quiet and peaceful and the early morning sun was gorgeous. We were on the top deck outside the whole time (free tea and coffee to keep chilly hands warm) and it was just amazing. 
>> Nicole and I were obviously excited when the sun finally hit us as the boat sailed between two peaks :) 
I have one or two photos that we will either be blowing up, or having someone paint when we get home. 
This place was unreal. They say it's also from the Lord of the Rings - where Froddo is leaving in his boat and Sam comes to the river and won't let him go alone... this is really for Krista and a few others. We felt special knowing Peter Jackson had been there :)
OKAY... now that there are heaps of photos of the sound (we took about 700 on 2 cameras... just here... it's that good!), what else did we do that day?
Ah yes - a little something we like to call Rescue Rangers. Not Chip and Dale (great cartoon though), but our peaceful drive home from Milford Sound was interrupted by a man running toward us in the road. I was driving, and Grant actually saw him first as we came around a corner in this forest area. I have to point out that while this IS the only road to/from Milford Sound and it is 2 hours of driving... it's not busy. We probably passed 30 vehicles in our round-trip drive because many people stay over in the sound to go on the tour, or fly in from Queenstown on little planes. And it's winter. So this guy was in the middle of nowhere with no vehicle...
He was Korean and spoke basic english, and was pointing behind us saying 'accident'. I'm thinking, hun we just drove by there and saw nothing... but sure enough from where we were on the other side it was hidden by trees. This poor guy had been in a camper van (motor home) that was now on it's side 2m into the trees with its roof facing the road. I think you can imagine our stomachs collectively sank.
To shorten an already long blog, there were 2 people inside, the one was a guy who we saw try to open the passenger door, then the back door (which were both facing the sky) and the second was a woman who was hurt inside. Nicole asked him if she was awake, yes. But bleeding. Collective gulp on our part and immediate realization that this was too big for our First Aid babysitting/frosh week courses. The man had a cell phone, but no reception where we were. We knew we were still about 50 min from Te Anau - the town we came from/were returning to.
We finally flagged down another driver after driving south for 20 min (the 1st we had seen - told you...). She had a phone and this time we got reception and made the emergency call. Then we were told emergency services would take over and we could continue south. We passed a police car, an ambulance, and a fire truck (and then an emergency helicopter) and knew things were under control :) It was a very crazy afternoon and I think we were all shaken up, but happy we arrived when we did and also that we didn't have to drive all the way back to town for help. We stopped by the police station and found out that they were ok and that the female was going to be treated at the hospital.
Knowing this, we all felt better and moved onto Queenstown for the night.
The following day was relaxing and enjoying the activities of Queenstown.
Grant and Nicole got up early and went snowboarding at Coronet mountain.
They had a super day and enjoyed the INCREDIBLE scenery from the top of the mountain (which was where you had to go to hit snow!). Liz spent the day wandering around town and frankly getting a little massage for a sore neck. Snowboarding was great. I need to get back into that when we get home! Can't wait!
We met up that afternoon and went for dinner ... you can imagine Grant's excitement when I revealed a Stone Grill restaurant in Queenstown!!! A small Irish pub served stone grill meals, and as you recall from our Jervis Bay posts in March... a fantastic meal it was! Nicole has joined in with praise for the raw-meat-on-a-stone cooking.
We also went to the ice bar across from our hotel! Minus 5 (actually, it was minus 10 when we got there) was a fun little bar sponsored by Absolut vodka and everything except the cash register and the glass bottles the drinks are poured from is ice! We had to be bundled up for that one, but it was a fun experience - the coolest bar we've ever been to! har har har Our second day in Queenstown (Wednesday July 11) was kicked off with a great croissant breakfast with homemade hot chocolate mmmm, and then we took the gondola up overlooking town to watch as Nicole went... BUNGY JUMPING!
Needless to say Grant and I were scared for her... 
But then off she went!YEA NICOLE!
It was hilarious to hear her laugh from 47 m below us as she bounced around :) Great scenery too!
Then we did some 'luging' - like go karting without engines. It was so fun, this is literally the course, we rounded a few corners on one edge, it was awesome! Then it was ciao Queenstown and we started our drive up through Wanaka onto the west coast. We stayed overnight in Haast (3 motels and 1 restaurant = town) before heading to the glaciers on Thursday.
But this ends part II of our trip, I need to go get some brekkie before I keep writing. Plus this gives you something to look forward to later! Another post!
xoxoxo Liz, Grant & Daredevil-Nicole :)
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