Days 6, 7 and 8. Queenstown and surroundings, flight to Milford Sound

On the morning of February 6, I set out to explore Queenstown. I took the gondola up the mountain, which offers a beautiful view over Queenstown and the surrounding area.

After that I drove to the port for a lake cruise I had booked in advance, but because I could not figure out where to park, I missed the boat. Queenstown has many free parking spots marked `P15` and `P30`. That means you may leave the car there for no more than 15 or 30 minutes for free, after that you get fined, so in this town it is better to find parking in advance. I eventually found an underground parking garage near the port.

Here is a photo of the Queenstown area, with my hotel among all the others:

Then I decided to drive along the eastern shore of the lake. Tourists rarely go there, and I hardly saw any local cars either. The views along that shoreline are excellent, but there is no point in driving past the end of the lake, as farmland and dirt roads begin there.

On the morning of February 7, I had a flight to Milford Sound planned. Before it, I drove up Double Cone, which is 1,600 meters high. As far as I understood, driving there was actually forbidden, but the gate was open, so I decided to take the risk. To be honest, the drive was a bit scary because the gravel was rough and I was afraid of puncturing a tire. There is not much at the top apart from a couple of beautiful views. In February 2015, a new ski resort was under construction there, so I could not go any farther than the parking area.

After a long descent in low gear, I rushed to the tour agency, this time parking the car in advance. I bought many of my cruise tickets in New Zealand here: https://www.realjourneys.co.nz/. The flight was excellent. There were few people, everyone else was traveling in pairs, and I got the seat next to the pilot. As far as I understood, all the others were flying to Milford Sound for several days, and I was the only one who had bought a ticket there and back on the same day. That suited me perfectly, because I was planning to visit Milford several more times by car and just wanted to see this part of New Zealand from the air first. The flight took about 50 minutes each way, and I had 20 minutes there to take a few pictures. I got lucky that day: the weather was great, the sky was clear, and there was almost no wind. While preparing for the trip, I had read many times that good weather in Milford is rare, but somehow I managed to catch exactly such a day, unlike the following days of my stay there.

After the flight, I drove around the outskirts of Queenstown a bit more, went up Coronet Peak by car, and also visited Moke Lake.