On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Paul in St. Augustine
The South Island is sparsely populated. There were several times during my 10 days exploring where I would not encounter another car on the road for an hour.The Southern Alps were featured in a different submission. Milford Sound, a fiord carved out by glaciers, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Sunrise from The Vintner’s Reserve Resort, in the small village of Rapaura. This town is in the Marlborough region of the South Island, famous for it’s distinctive Sauvignon Blanc.

Planning my route from Franz Josef to Queenstown, the main road to Queenstown is NZ 6. At the lakeside town of Wanaka, an alternate route was suggested, the Cardrona Valley Road, which was describes as ” a road to take if you’re a competent driver”. It is the highest paved road in the country, and twists and turns abound. There was no way I would not take that route. What the guide book did not mention was the Cardrona Valley Bra Fence. Bras began appearing on the fence in 1999, and this is now considered a quirky tourist attraction.

Start mountain ridges against a cerulean sky.

Queenstown, from the top of the mountain via tram. The town is on Lake Wakatipu, the third largest lake in the country. Although small, if you can think of an adventurous activity, you can do it here.

The docks at Milford Sound. From Queenstown, it’s a 180 mile drive. A bus option is available, if you wish. However, your time is not your own. I managed to pass the bus on my trip down. There are several boat tour options. I chose the smallest boat possible, which meant we could get closer to the sides than other boats. Mitre Peak is the tallest mountain on the Sound, and it rises to a height of 5522 feet. Straight up from the water. Here. it’s mostly hidden by clouds.

There are dozens of waterfalls along the fiord. I like this picture, capturing a rainbow.

The blond colored boulders are greenstone, locally called pounamu It is also known as jade. Imbued with spiritual significance to New Zealand’s Indigenous tribes, you are allowed to harvest, or ‘fossick’ for the rocks on the beaches of Te Tai o Poutini (the West Coast of the South Island).

The end of the fiord, heading into the Tasman Sea. Sydney, Australia, lies 1160 miles to the west.
YY_Sima Qian
Nice! I have fond memories of South Island.
debbie
Wow, especially that sunrise! Thanks for sharing!
SiubhanDuinne
Glorious photos!
But I must confess that, since I read OTR pre-coffee and with blurry morning eyes, I read The docks at Milford Sound as The ducks at Milford Sound. Because ducks.
Betty
Such dramatic landscape. Sounds like quite the adventure.
Rob
Pretty! Some day maybe I’ll go.
Time Travelin
One of my favorite places in the world.
sab
Glorious. I thought St Augustine, Florida and then I saw that mountain and thought whoops wrong place!
SkyBluePink
Wonderful photos!
Grumpy Old Railroader
Sigh. Added to my already overly long bucket list
J R in WV
Great photos. May have been helpful to mention that you were (probably) in NZ…
thanks for sharing.
stinger
Beautiful, especially the waterfalls.
munira
Beautiful place, beautiful photos.
Paul in St. Augustine
@J R in WV: Thanks. I actually did mention I was there, if you look closely. However, you’re right in that I did not mention New Zealand by name. Hopefully I said that somewhere in tomorrow’s post!
WaterGirl
@Betty: The docks at Milford Sound was my favorite pic, though of course i liked all of them.
But man, would I love to be there.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I mentioned it in Monday’s post! :-)
This week brings us birds and junkyards and glaciers, and then we finish off the week with 2 days in New Zealand!
But that was 3 days ago, and we have all slept since then. I’ll add NZ to the two posts.
dnfree
We were not as adventurous as you and took a tour in 2017 to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Such a beautiful country, with so many contrasts. Our tour guide said that the reason the South Island is so sparsely populated is the sand flies.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/88169578/sandflies-new-zealands-bloodsucking-summer-nightmare-actually-its-yearround
It’s hard to describe the beauty to people, but we had a couple of encounters back home where we said to people “Did you see The Lord of the Rings?” And they said “OOOHHH”.