Beautiful New Zealand - Part II

The last part of our New Zealand trip was spent in Queenstown, the "Adventure Capital of the World." James' mom flew all the way from Taiwan and joined us. Queenstown is an incredibly beautiful town with mountains surrounding the crystal blue Lake Wakatipu. The mountains are snow-capped during the winter but are still beautiful and magnificent in the summer.



We met up with our friends David and Kathy and their three kids from the Bay Area for some Queenstown adventures. We rode the Skyline Gondola, raced on the luge, hiked and BBQ'd. James also experienced the Shotover Jet, a twisting and turning ride through the narrow canyons of the Shotover river. Next time, we'll come back for some paragliding, bungee jumping and bungee swinging.





From Queenstown, we took a day trip flying to Milford Sound. Milford sound is a fjord within the Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. We flew on a 14 seater Cessna 208 Caravan and survived. The beautiful weather that day enabled the pilot to get extremely close to some mountains for some spectacular views.







Views from the cruise on Milford Sound:





We also visited Arrowtown, a historic gold mining town about 30 minutes drive from Queenstown. Many Chinese immigrants came to Arrowtown in the late 1800s in hopes of finding gold. We walked around the Chinese settlement where the miners had built small huts as their homes.



We had a fantastic time in New Zealand and had a hard time leaving this beautiful country. Two flights and twelve hours later, we arrived in Singapore for the next part of our journey.
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