Milford Sound to Fox Glacier

2007-04-15, Milford Sound, New Zealand

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We drove to a place called Te Anau in the morning then from there to Milford Sound. The drive from Te Anau to Milford itself was the most beautiful sceneic drive in the world and we must have stopped about 20 times to take photos. We did a boat tour of the Milford Sound which was really good. It only takes about an hour and a half to sail around it and back. It's a bit like a massive gorge with huge hills on either side with waterfalls running down. On the way back we saw some dolphins and seals too.

The next day we went luging which is a bit like go carting. You sit in small little carts with handlebars and a brake and race round a little track then come up a chairlift and do it all over again. It's really good fun and one of the cheaper activities to do in Queenstown. After that we drove up to the glaciers on the west coast. The next day we did an 8 hour walk on Franz Josef Glacier which was very tiring but brilliant. You have spikes on your shoes and ice picks to help you climb and walk on this massive stretch of ice. You go through little caves and walk on ledges too it's a lot of fun. Afterwards we went out for a few beers with some of the people we met on the walk. We had our skydive booked for the next day at Fox Glacier but when we got up our car wouldn't start! We had to have it jump started and we missed our skydive so had to move that to the next day. There wasn't much to do at all in the towns so we had a boring lazy day and went up to Fox Glacier in the evening.

The next day we did our skydive which was amazing! I wasn't actually as scared as I thought I would be. We practiced exiting the plane which involves being strapped to the instructer, hanging out of the plane door on him and then making a banana shape with your body so that your legs are curved up behind you and your head is tilted on the instructor's chest. When we did it 12,000 ft in the air it was a bit daunting but it's very easy and before you know it your gone out of the plane and free falling so fast that the plane is just a little dot in a few seconds. The views were really good aswell which was the main reason we did the skydive over the glacier. You get a good little DVD too (which cost about as much as the skydive itself!) with an interview before and after.