1. This day will forever be known as the scenery day. The drive from Queenstown to Milford sound is probably one of the most scenic in the world.
2. Photography from the window of a bus careening down the rough, narrow roads is risky at best. The results achieved are marginal at best, but serve to document and remind me of what it was really like. Here are The Remarkables, shrouded in fog, sporting a coat of fresh snow.
3. While I was never seriously injured taking pictures from the bus, there was always that risk. The fact that the other passengers though I was nuts was only incidental. This is a view back towards Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu.
4. An hour or so later and we were skirting the shores of Lake Te Anau
5. The cabbage tree bears little resemblance to anything cabbage to me. It's probably a Cordyline astralis
6. The next several shots are of the Eglinton Valley. Could it possibly get any more scenic than this/>
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15. The Red Tussock Grass would make a fine ornamental grass in the urban landscape.
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17. The Beech trees are remarkable for their form and tiny leaves - about the size of your fingernail.
18. The snowcapped peaks begin to close in - forshadowing things to come...
19. The New Zealand Flax grows to enormous size - bloom stalks 10 or more feet high
20. One of dozens of waterfalls along the way...
21. Hebe - a native of New Zealand - has only recently been introduced as an ornamental plant in North America
22. a few ferns and those giant sticks -a Tree Fuchsia that grows up to 30 feet tall
23. Hebe and native bunch grasses line an alpine stream
24. Ranunculus lyallii - Mt Cook Lily - a funny name for a buttercup! We overheard one bus driver telling his passengers it was really a daisey! But, then, we don't expect bus drivers to know everything!