McEwen Farming and Family Stuff

Mid May 2026 we were able to fit in this long awaited trip.

Never had visited our neighbor Country although Ian Had always wanted to visit and experience Milford Sound .

Having decided after our Turkey/Greece trip that it was the last organised group we would do . (Could not keep up with the pace ) Alison sat down with Sonni In Bendigo Flight center decided we would fly to Queenstown as that is the jump off for The Milford tour . Hire a car and drive to TeAnau and then tour up the length of the south Island

Less than 3 hours from Melbourne flying in through the western mountain range all covered in a mantle of snow was spectacular

I was able to get my electric folding scooter on to the plane and was also able to use it to get through the airport right to the gate . Then take the lithium battery out in in a plastic bag with the carry on and that worked very well. Sonni, chose a SUV that was easy to transport my scooter . WE found we did not need special shuttles as all the taxis were able to carry my scooter mostly in the boot.

The sound opens into the sea here and is quite a narrow entrance and Capt Cook missed it on his journey. It runs 14 kilometres inland and is up to 400 metres deep. The Mitre Peak mountain reaches over a mile straight up out of the sea . THe area has been dubbed the 8th wonder of the world.

From this area we drove across to the east Coast just south of Duneden to visit a large Grazing property right on the Coast . Emma Pearse from Donald had married a Kiwi, Ben McGill and his family had developed this property and as a trained Architect, Ben had built a beautifull home from local stone and milled timber for his parents and they have an extension for themselves over looking a river inlet. THey graze a genetical superior Angus herd and also have a prime lamb sheep breeding programme .

We drove to Duneden a very Scotish flavoured historic city and visited their St Pauls Cathedral and its World Class architecture.

From there we travelled to Christchurch and had two days there enjoying especially just after Anzac Day their marvelous Anzac museum and the more recent earthquake museum and the devastation of the Central City area.

We then drove across the Canterbury plains with the snow capped western mountains and Mt Cook and then into and through the mountains to Richmond and