A holiday of a lifetime - Part 3

For the final part of our New Zealand odyssey, we travelled south, flying to Queenstown and then being driven to Te Anau, a small resort town on the shore of Lake Te Anau in the aptly named national park of Fiordland. Te Anau is a gateway to an area which is largely uninhabited wilderness and much favoured by adventure tourists braver than me. People will go tramping for days on end, often in the trickiest weather conditions - this is one of the wettest areas in the world. Much of Fiordland is remote in the extreme, but it was very pleasant to dine in the comfort of the hotel a couple of times with a fine view of the lake!

The trip from Te Anau to Milford Sound was dramatic and truly unforgettable. Milford Sound has been called the world's top travel destination, and Rudyard Kipling - of all people - described it as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The only way to get there, unless you're trekking, is along a long and winding road, hoping to avoid the avalanches. Vehicles are monitored to see if they are fire risk - you wouldn't want to be caught in a fire in the Homer Tunnel through the mountains, that is for sure. On our trip, in a small tour group in a van, the weather was astonishing. On the way out, the rain was absolutely torrential. As we drove along, by the roadside, there were dozens of 'pop-up' waterfalls created by the downpour. And yet, as the two-hour drive came to an end, the skies were clearing. We boarded a boat to explore the fiord that is Milford Sound, and had a picnic on board as the skies turned blue. There were dolphins and seals to be seen, though I didn't spot any whales or penguins - maybe the weather had deterred them! And on the way back, the weather had become close to idyllic - and most of those waterfalls had disappeared. There was a 'mirror lake' that looked as calm as a mill pond. But you'd never, ever find me trekking in that territory! An amazing trip - unique in my experience. We celebrated our survival with a couple of mocktails...

 

 

Next morning, a drive to the swish resort of Queenstown, via the small town of Garston (very different from its Liverpudlian counterpart and boasting the smallest 'library' I've ever seen), and another room with a fantastic view, this time of Lake Wakatipu. The long coastal walk into town took us into the Queenstown Gardens and then to the waterfront. A relaxing day, rounded off with a meal in a pub complete with Premier League football on TV (one can't be an adventurous tourist 24/7...) Next day, it was up in the Skyline Gondola (the cemetery and hospital are conveniently located nearby...) to enjoy sensational views. And then it was the final boat trip of the holiday, across to Walter Peak farm, where a fantastic barbecue, one of the best I've had, was followed by a farm show including sheep shearing and a sheepdog show. And that was our last full day in New Zealand, a country I found truly gorgeous, full of friendly and interesting people. It's very well suited to hardy, paragliding types (which I'm definitely not) but the landscape holds a universal appeal. Hugely impressive, totally memorable.

And then it was time to head back for Singapore and continue the exploration of all that it has to offer. Which is plenty. On the first visit, I'd been very taken by the Skypark and so I wanted to check out the views from the top, which was fun. After that, a truly iconic experience - afternoon tea at Raffles Hotel. This was great, and made even better by a harpist who had the good taste to serenade the tea drinkers with a Burt Bacharach tune! We went round a couple of cathedrals before taking a final walk around Marina Bay, enjoying the light show from the other side of the bay, and then heading back to the hotel to await our driver. Even in the airport lounge, there was time for one final memorable experience - my first Singapore Sling. It probably won't be my last...