January 17-21, 2024

Quite a few people we’d encountered along the way recommended Botswana Butchery to us and so we were glad to be able to enjoy its food and very good service.  The menu, while diverse to an extent, would still be steakhouse focused, which had been the single constant so far in our fine dining experiences.  We started with a round of cocktails, for me an Old Fashioned with Sazerac Rye and for the others gin and tonics with a local gin, before moving on to a bottle of Surveyor Thomson Pinot Noir that we would all split.  We would also share an order of Pan-Fried Risotto (Braised Otago rabbit, Parmesan foam, capers, olives, and red wine reduction). 

For our main courses, Marty would order the Fiordland Red Deer while Kim enjoyed the Crispy Half Duck (Kumara mash, orange, roasted eggplant, cherry & cinnamon compote, and Madeira duck jus).  Beverly and I would each get a steak, the Savannah Angus Eye Fillet, hers accompanied by Thyme & Pinot Jus while mine came with the Mushroom & Cognac sauce and Joanna ordered the West Coast NZ Whitebait (Spanish style, red chili, garlic, and green leaf salad). 

And kidding ourselves that we were being calorie conscious, we all split one order of the Otago Wildflower Honey & Rosemary Crème Brûlée (Elderflower gel, strawberry macaron, guava sorbet, and raspberry coulis) which was very good.  Including a couple of other drinks both before and after, our tab, including a tip, came to 747NZ ($486), pricey but at less than $100 per person with drinks and a bottle of wine included, still not outrageously expensive. 

The next day would be a long and full one and included a trip highlight, that being the Small Group, Award Winning Full Day Milford Sound Experience through Viator.  At a total cost of $1,059 ($212 per person) it would one of our most expensive outings but given the length of time and distance covered it was well worth the expense.  Given how long the day would be, we were to meet our van from Altitude Tours just down the road at a hotel at 6:30 am and once on board, we settled in for what would be a three plus hour ride to our destination. 

Milford Sound (Māori: Piopiotahi), located within Fiordland National Park, has been judged the world’s top travel destination in an international survey (the 2008 Travelers’ Choice Destinations Awards by TripAdvisor) and is acclaimed as New Zealand’s most famous tourist destination.  As a fiord, Milford Sound was formed by a process of glaciation over millions of years.  The village at the end of the fiord is also known as Milford Sound.

About halfway through our drive to the coast we stopped at the small town of Te Anau for a break, where we had the time to get some coffee and a couple of pastries, just what we needed to get us to the lunch we would have on the boat.  For several miles, we tracked alongside the Egliton River and eventually entered Fiordland National Park.  We stopped a few more times to catch up close views, or to admire some other stunning piece of scenery. 

The first of these was a series of mirror like ponds on the river with a stunning backdrop of mountains and broad plains.  Next, we stopped at Christie Falls which drains into Falls Creek that runs alongside the highway, a breathtaking experience as the sound of the falls on top of that of the river rushing by is almost overwhelming. 

From there we drove on to Monkey Creek, a glacier-fed spring with water so pure one can fill up their water bottle and drink straight from the source.  A common attraction here is to spot a Kea bird, a threatened species, where we are advised to not feed them so that they continue to hunt for their own food which has the nutrition they need.  We made one final stop before the sound, in a broad open valley with high winds, a spectacular setting reminiscent of Yosemite for its grandeur.

Soon enough we reached Milford Sound town and its docks and found ourselves on board our ship for the scheduled cruise.  We’d spend a pleasant couple of hours on the cruise which would also include a box lunch, a chicken sandwich, chips, and an apple which we could wash down with unlimited amounts of free coffee.  Milford Sound runs 9 miles inland from the Tasman Sea at Dale Point (also named after a location close to Milford Haven in Wales)—the mouth of the fiord—and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise 3,900 feet or more on either side.  

As you cruise out of the harbor you are presented with the view made famous through the decades, with Mitre Peak at 5,560 feet at the center with almost sheer drops to the water.  The mountain was named by Captain John Lort Stokes of HMS Acheron, who found its shape reminiscent of the mitre headwear of Christian bishops.  The peak is a closely grouped set of five peaks, although from most easily accessible viewpoints, it appears as a single point.  Among the other peaks in the sound are The Elephant at 4,977 feet, said to resemble an elephant’s head, and The Lion, 4,272 feet, in the shape of a crouching lion.

With a mean annual rainfall of 252 inches each year, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world.  The rainfall creates dozens of temporary waterfalls fed by rainwater-drenched moss (as well as several major, more permanent ones) cascading down the cliff faces, some reaching a thousand yards in length.  Milford Sound sports two permanent waterfalls, Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls which at 495 feet was named after Frederick Stirling, Captain of HMS Clio.  So, we could count ourselves fortunate to have a warm blue sky day to enjoy our cruise. 

On the way out through the sound, we stopped at a stretch of the drenched moss waterfalls, thin sheets of water cascading down a broad stretch of rock and then after turning around at the end of the sound, returned to stop again at Stirling Falls to push in close to the streaming water, drenching many of the folks who had stationed themselves outside on the bow of the boat.  All in all, the cruise was rewarding, and I’d do it again, if only to make that approach to the sound through what was equaling spectacular and thrilling landscapes. 

We made the long trek back to Queenstown with one stop for refreshments and after getting dropped off at the original hotel pick up point, we walked up the hill a short distance for a final dinner at Lokal, the dishes that evening blending into meals we’d experienced before and now relegated to the mists of history.  It would be an early evening as we’d be flying to Melbourne the next morning to begin our time in Australia, bidding farewell to New Zealand and the many happy memories we’d gained there.  We would not soon forget our time here, the sights we saw, the activities we engaged in and most importantly the priceless time we spent with good friends. 

Links

Botswana Butchery: https://botswanabutchery.nz/queenstown/

Milford Sound Tour: https://www.viator.com/tours/Queenstown/Full-Day-Milford-Sound-and-Fiordland-National-Park-Tour-including-Milford-Sound-Cruise-and-BBQ-Lunch-from-Queenstown/d407-3287_ZQN

Altitude Tours: https://www.altitudetours.co.nz/

Milford Sound: https://www.newzealand.com/us/milford-sound/

Kea: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/kea/