Starting the New Year Right

Enjoying the glorious scenery around Lake Wakatipu and beyond.

We were going to drive ourselves to Milford Sound but it's about four hours each way and if you're driving winding roads it's hard to enjoy the scenery so we splurged on a bus tour to get to the cruise on the Sound and we're really glad we did. The driver knew all the best places to stop and had plenty of fascinating information about the environs.

The second we got out of Queenstown there was farmlands with sheep.  Lots of sheep.

And cows.

And surprisingly lots of red deer. These were originally imported for game hunting but quickly became a pest so they caught them and now they farm them.

And a couple of goats and a horse or two, some alpaca and llamas.

As if that wasn't enough, the countryside is absolutely gorgeous.

And if that wasn't enough, I've been knitting with almost no discomfort and here I am in New Zesland with an extravagance of fiber-bearing animals and I know which yarn store I'm going to hit when we get to Auckland.

I really loved the mirror lakes.

Yes.

Oh yes.

And the mountains.

And the blue/tinged glacier-fed streams so clear so magical that if you drink from them you'll live to a hundred and two. Sounds good.

And the mountains. Again and again.

Milford Sound was nice too.

The waterfalls.

The seals fat like slugs on a rock.

A beautiful start to the New Year but a long day.

The last day of 2015 was perfectly lovely too.

We walked the 6km lake trail from Frankton (where we were staying) to Queenstown, then took the gondola up the mountain for yet another magnificent view.

Sunset from our accommodation over the lake was more than acceptable too.

So far 2016 looks good.