I'm glad it was LOR and not LOL
Between the shades and the headphones,
I probably could have flown the plane.
We got off to a bad start, but the day got better after that. Carol tried to make breakfast, but the teflon was flaking off the frying pan, so breakfast was trashed. The house is nice, and the view is the amazing we've ever had. But the owners are cheap -- they have crappy pans, not enough glasses, no pot holders, etc. It's as though they believe that the beautiful setting makes up for the lack of amenities (well, I suppose it does, but how hard would it be to spent $200 to have more stuff that people need? I know the answer -- not hard at all!)
The Frankton Arm, Lake Wakatipu, Cecil Peak,
and Walter Peak from the plane.
Moke Lake. If this picture had been taken
yesterday, you could see us hiking along the
west shore (reader's right). But, it wasn't,
so you can't see us hiking. Especially since I took the picture!
We had to be at the airport at 9:30, so at 8:30, we piled in the car and drove the 15 minutes in Qtown. We went back to the Vudu Cafe and Larder for breakfast (great food), but, since it was Saturday of a holiday weekend, service was very slow. Finally, at 8:09, Carol asked after our food. Delivered at 8:10, we ate quickly -- five minutes!
Carol's view to the north, as we flew west.
We rushed off to the airport, where we sat around and waited for a bit. Promptly at 10am, we got the safety briefing and walked out to the small plane. It was the pilot, the three of us, and a family of four from Melbourne.
Now imagine mile after mile of this,
and you get the view we had.
We were flying on Glenorchy Air, which spells the first part of its name correctly. It's much better as "Glen" rather than "Glenn" because one less letter is both better for the environment and easier to pronounce. But, I digress.
The northern arm of Lake Wakatipu --
the town of Glenorchy (nice spelling!)
is just to the right, out of the picture.
The flight was amazing. Incredible. Row after row of snow capped mountains, with lakes (some frozen, some not) and valleys interspersed throughout. Upon take-off we could see the jet boats on the Shotover River, Moke Lake, and, of course, nearly all of Lake Wakatipu. The wind buffeted the plane a bit here and there, but for the most part, the flight was great.
Not sure if you can see Frodo and the company
of Dwarves hiking along the mountain top.
They are there -- just keep looking!
Carol and I swapped the camera back and forth to take pictures along the whole flight.
Unfortunately, my headphones didn't work, so I missed all of the information the pilot was sharing about the flight and view, but it was so pretty it didn't matter. Apparently some of the mountains were backdrops for scenes in the Lord of the Rings, and all of them could have been. Or the Hobbit. Either way, you can see why those movies were set here in NZed.
While it looks like we were close to the mountain,
we actually were closer. Good news is, the
pilot took nothing for granite.
For the landing (after a 35 minute flight), we came in over the Tasman Sea and in through the amazing Milford Sound. Which, as Maddy points out in her blog post on the day, is actually a Fjord, because it was carved by glaciers (pronounced "glay-she-airs" by the Kiwis). If you think about it, because of the "i" in glaciers, that's the phonetically correct way, instead of "glay-sures" like we Americans say it. We flew past the famous two big waterfalls (more in the next post).
This is what it looks like when the plane flies
between the mountains -- and the mountains
are higher!
The landing was a bit bumpy thanks to the wind, but we made it nonetheless. Then, we were quickly
hustled off the plane and into a shuttle bus to take us to the cruise departure section.
Random glacial lake. It has a name,
but I don't know it (with apologies
to the late, great Jim Croce).
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