New Zealand - South Island (part 2)

(continued from previous post)

Even now as I look at these photos, I'm disappointed that they don't capture the beauty - the awe inspiring beauty! I took a little over 100 pictures and probably 30-40 minutes of video. I'll try posting all of them up to web album when I get more time. Here are a few of the pictures and videos to chew on until then: (note these videos are low-resolution so that I can post them via the iPad, but when I am able to post the HD videos, you'll have to check them out! Also, these videos are only 30-45 seconds long because I have limited bandwidth in the hotel but some of the HD videos are 3-4 minutes long and well worth the time to watch them! Turn down the sound on your speakers - all you can hear is the helicopter whirring...we have headsets on so that we can hear each other and the pilot pointing out different things along the way but I couldn't capture that in my videos.)



(The landing on top of a mountain)



(View of the Southern Alps from about 9,000 feet)




(Coming into Milford Sound - these peaks are about 6,000 feet above sea level and the Sound is about 1,300 feet deep...that's deep!)



(Landing at Milford Sound)



(I think this is Mitre Peak - but it was hard to understand our helicopter pilot sometimes...English in New Zealand could be classified as a different language in my mind!)





(The tide was out when we landed, but would have come all the way up to my feet if the tide was in.)



(I love this shot - the base of these mountains are at sea level so it's basically a lush rainforest type environment, then shear rock faces up the to peaks of these mountains.)


(Another landing with Queenstown in the distance on the edge of Lake Wakatipu - click on the photo and zoom in, there's actually a town way down there!)


It's interesting that the highest peak in all of New Zealand is only 12,500 feet (+/-) and all of the peaks around me are no more than 7,000 - 8,000 feet. My Vail house is at 8,120 feet so it is actually higher than all of the tops of these peaks you see in the pictures and the videos. The difference is that the bases of these mountains are at sea level so the mountains climb 8,000 feet very quickly versus in Colorado the Gore Range is 14,000 feet climbing up from the base of 8,000 feet - so you only see a 6,000 foot vertical rise. Here, we're looking at an 8,000 foot vertical rise which gives the appearance that these mountains are higher than those we see in Colorado.

(continued in next post)

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Location:Queenstown, New Zealand