Our flight from Milford Sound back to Queenstown

As I mentioned before, we've been very lucky with the weather during our entire time in New Zealand. Today was one of the most significant weather days as to how it would affect our itinerary. As I posted already, we went on a spectacular 2-1/2 hour cruise on Milford Sound today, which is really best on a nice, clear day. Our itinerary stated that we would drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound (which took about 5-1/2 hours with all of our stops, but could be about 4 hours if driven straight) and depending on weather, we had the option to fly back to Queenstown (only 25 minute flight). The weather varies here so much day to day, that you never know if you'll be able to fly back/forth to Milford Sound. We were lucky. When we left Queenstown in the morning, our guide phoned the flight company and arranged seats for us on the afternoon flight back.

We were off the boat at 4:00, drove less than five minutes to the airport, and walked right onto the plane that was waiting for us.

We were the only passengers who had not flown on the same plane from Queenstown to Milford Sound that morning, so the only seats left were in the middle. Luckily, Dick was seated in the middle, right behind the pilot, and still had great visibility out the windows. I was lucky, too, as the very sweet gentleman sitting next to me offered to take photos for me with my camera, or let me lean over him to take my own photos. He was still able to take plenty of photos, plus he had taken photos on the earlier flight that morning. We got some really great shots from the air - better than I thought we would be able to. It was really amazing to see Middle Earth from above! What a treat.

The plane ride was fairly smooth, with a few bumpy spots, but really great overall. It was also nice to shave more than three hours off of our travel time today, and make it back to our lodge well before dinner.

We were so happy that the weather was nice and that we were able to enjoy both the beautiful drive to Milford Sound, as well as the short and equally beautiful flight back.










































our lodge can be seen in the lower left of the photo, near the lake


Queenstown