Mileage: 213
The most beautiful road in the world, according to the Motorcycle Atlas.
The morning dawned with clear blue skies. The clouds from the previous day were nowhere to be seen. Today was the perfect day to cruise the sound. Breakfast was a sesame bagel with scrambled eggs and a latte.
I love their coffee here and have been sampling the various lattes along my trek through this beautiful country.
Side note: Of all the countries I’ve visited, New Zealand wins as the most gorgeous and stunning. I’d move here in a New York second and buy a small ranch with a couple of horses. No joke.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Matt and I rode down to the wharf. Although the skies were clear, the wind brought with it quite a chill. I didn’t have a windbreaker so decided to wear my motorcycling jacket since the lining was water and windproof.
Words cannot describe the views from this cruise so photos will have to do.
The captain let me drive the boat! I drove for a good 10 minutes or so while he gave the tour over the loudspeaker. Vroom vroom!
Windy and wet. The boat got REALLY close to the waterfall and those of us brave enough to stay on the bow got sprayed.
I learned the difference between a fiord and a sound. A sound is a river valley created by the ocean. A fiord is created through millions of years of glacial erosion. Milford sound was created by glaciers so should really be called Milford Fiord.
My life is defined by moments like this, moments where I am in absolute awe of the world around me. Whether it be standing at the bow of a boat seeing my first fiord, surrounded by dark jagged glacial peaks with the crisp air stinging my cheeks pink, or staring at sharp teeth in the gaping maw of the shark swimming towards me, or scuba diving upside down, watching my air bubbles shimmy their way towards the surface dancing through the darting of schools of silver-bellied fish as the sunlight shimmers on the surface of the water or dancing on my motorcycle along the most beautiful road in the world, these are the moments when the world stops for just a little while and there is nowhere else in the world that I’d rather be or anything else I’d rather be doing than what I am experiencing at that moment, in that place. When asked to share the most memorable stories of my life, these are the times and places that define who I am.
The ride from Milford Sound to Wanaka took me back on the most beautiful road in the world and this time, I made sure to enjoy the view. I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole day. We reached Wanaka, where I had booked my timeshare for the week. I was looking forward to not be hopping from hostel to hostel for the next seven days. After a week of hostels, the timeshare was absolute heaven.
Wanaka was definitely an upscale tourist town but you can’t blame them. The town surrounds Lake Wanaka which was nestled among beautiful mountains.
It was nice to be able to spread my stuff about and not worry about waking up early to pack and hit the road. I decided to take the next day off from riding to do some horseback riding. The tour guide of Lord of the Rings in Twizel recommended Dart Stables. What do you know, they had a horseback riding LOTR tour! I booked two rides, the LOTR and River Wild. LOTR was a slow walking tour and the River Wild would allow me to do some trotting and cantering. I also booked a canyoning excursion for two days later.
I went to bed with visions of galloping horses in my head.
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