The Doubtful Sound

A few weeks ago my uncle was visiting from Switzerland and we took him to the South Island for a tour. I had also never been there, so I tagged along. We could have taken two tours, the Milford sound or the Doubtful sound. Highly recommending the Doubtful Sound, because the Milford sound has ALL the tourists, while the Doubtful sound has about 30 people on the tour.

On the South Island it rains 90% of the time, or at least is cloudy. By some miracle, the day we went, there were NO clouds (after the morning ones ran away), sunshine, and we saw everything and anything! It was amazing. The tour took 12 hours, and it basically went: Bus from Queenstown to Lake Manapouri, across a mountain pass, and onto the Doubtful Sound, out to the Tasman Sea, then back again with an additional stop to a magnificent underground power plant. It was cold, it was windy, and it was refreshing! We hardly ever went inside the ferry because the outside air was so nice, and honestly if you were in buses and inside a boat all day, that tour is going to be very stale. You have to get some fresh air.
After the tour we ventured over to Dunedin where I saw an old friend from school, and we saw how small and cute Dunedin is. If only it weren't so chilly... Here's a picture dump, enjoy.

Mooloolaba

Whoa golly gosh gee. It has been so hectic in my life, at first I had nothing to do in February and was bored out of my mind and now it is September and I don't quite remember what happened in the past few months.

Regardless, I will post my latest outdoor adventure. It has been cold, rainy, and sad in New Zealand. So the hiking is not so good, but that doesn't mean we don't go out and adventure! No! We book a ticket and fly to Australia during the spring time and have fun over there.

It was my first time in Australia and we went to Brisbane for a time and then drove up to Mooloolaba. All of these are in Queensland next to the Coral Sea, north eastern Australia. Our hotel in Brisbane was the tallest building there. We were on the 69th floor! It was very intimidating to live in. The 40 story buildings below looked like babies comparatively. There were also botanical gardens where you could spot giant fruit bats in the trees!

What I loved about Australia was all the animals, there are wild parrots, and lizards galore. It's really incredible, all the wildlife. In New Zealand, there is hardly any since their native animals are kind of a little wimpy and would be easily picked off..... In Australia there is a range from gentle koalas, to the ever famous Crocs. AMAZING.
We took some hikes on the way up to Mooloolaba at some waterfalls along the way. The beaches in Mooloolaba were these nice long white sand beaches.

We went to the amazing Australia Zoo, founded and performed at by the late Steve Irwin. RIP buddy. However the zoo is amazing, the show is amazing, the CROCS ARE AMAZING. I have even more respect seeing them in person as they do what they do. I didn't quite grasp how amazing they were when I watched his show as a kid.

Enough chit chat, here's a photo dump. :) Thanks for reading