Te Anau & Milford Sound

Day 1 – Te Anau

Waking up fairly late to make the most of our nice lodge we then headed off to have a drive around Wanaka Lake and take some pictures as we had not really explored the place fully.  Apparently there were some nice walks to do around here, but we were feeling lazy.

Next we had a 4 hour drive to our next destination of Te Anau, which was only a stopping off place so we were closer to Milford Sound the next day (there is nowhere to stay in Milford Sound).  As our little Nissan Sunny ate up the miles (or should I say Kilometres), once again we plugged in our learn Spanish audio book and we preceded to cover the windscreen with spit for a couple of hours before stopping to have a picnic lunch.

Another couple of hours later we arrived in Te Anau which was a pretty small town, but as our hostel for the night was another 18km up the road and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere we decided to have a quick drink before heading there.

On checking in to our hostel it was a pretty basic affair, but it would do for the night.  The owner had given us details of a nice walk we could do, so once we got settled we headed out to get some fresh air in our lungs.

The first part of the walk took us through a wooded area which then led to Mistletoe Lake which was a small glacier lake, which was quite pretty with the backdrop of the mountains behind.  After a few pics we then headed on through a wooded area which took us back to the main road, the first part of the walk was done and it had taken us 10 minutes!!

For the second part of the walk we crossed the road and scrambled through to the main lake which ran outside of our hostel.  We couldn’t see the particular path that had been recommended so we just improvised walking along the edge of the lake, jumping over streams and basically trying not to get our feet wet.

After walking around the lake for about ½ hour and not being able to find a route up to the road and our hostel, we then had to backtrack and go back the way we came and then scramble up what was possibly a path, through someone’s front lawn and back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel we chilled out for a bit before heading to the communal kitchen to sort out dinner, which was the left-overs of a Spag Bol that Shell had knocked up a couple of days previous.  We sat in isolation (only seems to be one other guest here) and had this with some salad and washed down with a bottle of Red.

As there was no one around and  we did not have a TV in our room, we decided to grab another bottle of finish wine and watch TV on sofa’s in the communal room for the rest of the evening (we can be sociable when there’s no one else around!) before having a relatively early night.

Day 2 – Milford Sound

We had booked a boat trip on the Milford Sound for today, which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque places in NZ.  It also proclaims (as many other things do) to be the eighth wonder of the world, but for us it meant yet another early start.

Setting off at seven as we had our trip booked for 9.15 and it was a further two hour drive to reach Milford Sound.  We were making fairly good time so we stopped off at a little viewpoint called Mirror Lakes which had been recommended by the hostel owner.

Drawing up at a layby we got out the car and proceeded down a walk way which took us to a set of small lakes, which indeed did act like mirrors reflecting the images of all the snow-capped mountains that surrounded them.

Ten minutes later we jumped back in the car and continued along the way taking in the beautiful mountain scenery with waterfall’s streaming off them all around us.

Getting close now we then came to a set of Traffic lights in front of a tunnel which seemed to take an eternity to change.  But when we entered the tunnel we found out why as it was a pretty much one track road, roughly carved out, with no lighting that went on for about 1km into the mountain and what felt like the bowels of hell.

We were pretty pleased to see daylight at the other end and after a few km of the winding road we found the tourist car park and headed to the boat terminal.

For once we had been lucky and the weather was pretty good (despite poor reports) and we boarded the boat and got ourselves a hot tea and waited set sail.  Immediately the views were stunning with snow-capped mountains lining the estuary that is Milford Sound.

After about 5 minutes we were passing one of the larger waterfall’s that fell from the mountainside into the Milford Sound.  An interesting fact about the Milford sound is although it is a saltwater estuary, because of the freshwater running into it off the mountains, it has a freshwater top layer of a couple of feet which makes it very dark in colour.  Because of this, the bottom of it is very dark so it has species of marine life in it that are generally found at far deeper depths out to sea (about time I put a fact into this nonsense!).

Continuing up the sound, the scenery all around was wonderful and with all the waterfalls coming off the surrounding mountains combined with the sun, there were small rainbows everywhere.

Next was a bit of a surprise as one of the other boat skippers had spotted dolphins and so our captain headed across and we were soon watching a small school of dolphins.  As it was slightly out of season we were lucky as there were not too many people on our boat, which meant it was quite easy to move around the deck and get good views of things, resulting in the decent dolphin shot below.

Once the dolphins had got bored of the attention and buggered off the captain then manoeuvred the boat close to some rocks nearby where there was a colony of seals hanging out.  We watched them for a while whilst they either squabbled amongst themselves of just chilled out on the rocks, before heading back up the estuary to where it met the open ocean.

One thing I didn’t mention was that there was quite a stiff wind blowing so it was freezing and so Shell and I were wrapped up as if we were heading off on an arctic expedition.  As we neared the mouth of the estuary it started to get a bit choppy so we were quite pleased when it turned around and then we had the wind at our back.

On the return leg we were approaching the highest of the waterfall’s and the skipper said he was going to get us up close and personal with it.  He also warned that with the wind you were likely to get very wet if you stayed outside on the open decks, so Shell and I did the sensible thing and got indoors.  He was right as the water from the falls lashed onto the boat and a few hardy souls who had braved the open decks came back in quickly looking like drowned rats.

The rest of the journey back to the jetty was just spent marvelling at the wonderful scenery and probably taking far too many photo’s which would have to be trimmed back later.  We are also sure that we saw a couple of swimming penguins on the way back, but they dived under the water before we got close enough to positively identify (there are penguin colonies here too).

Back at the jetty we headed off to the car for what was to be another long drive.  It had definitely been worth taking this long trip to Milford Sound as it is pretty spectacular, Snow-Capped Mountains, Waterfalls, Dolphins, Seals, what’s not to like!!

Returning the way we came we were soon faced with the journey back through the tunnel, but once again we were held at the traffic light.  It wasn’t so bad this time as we suddenly saw that the car in front had a Kea Bird (Alpine Parrot) trying to remove their rear windscreen wiper which was quite amusing. 

Well amusing until it set its eyes on our silver dream machine and not having much luck with the windscreen wiper decided to switch car.  It also must have called its buddy’s down as we heard at least another two thumps on the roof, they then preceded to have a good chew on anything they thought may be tasty.  So we had one attacking the wing mirrors whilst the other would pop their heads over the roof and have a go at the window seals.

Fortunately the lights turned green before they could remove anything from the car, but despite picking up speed I think one clung on until we actually entered the tunnel.  Safely through the tunnel, we then drove for a while before we came to another place that had been recommended by the hostel owner, which was a walk to a waterfall, someone or somethings Chasm!!!

It was quite a pleasant walk through a moss covered forest until you got to the chasm/waterfall, where  we thought we would have a picnic, but there wasn’t anywhere really to sit down so we finished the walk and headed off in the direction of the car again.

A bit further along we saw signs for a lake viewpoint so thought it would be a good spot for our picnic, so we got out the car once again and started a little hike.  It came apparent that finding the lake was going to involve a big hike so we just stopped by some river rapids and waterfalls and had our filled rolls there (Shell’s getting very good on filled rolls duty!).

After we had eaten it was then time to hit the road for our long drive to our next and final destination of Queenstown, which was 4-5 hours away.  Once again along the way we forced ourselves to do another 2 hours of Spanish lessons, well it kills the time if by now you are bored by stunning scenery everywhere you drive!!

Arriving it Queenstown, our first impressions were very good as the town is set on a huge lake and as usual surrounded by beautiful Snow-Capped mountain’s…..yawn!!! (Am I using Snow-Capped mountains too much???).

Our little car struggled up a very steep hill to the hostel we had booked and after parking up ensuring the handbrake was well and truly on.  As this was our last stop in NZ we had decided to treat ourselves to an apartment for 5 nights so we could relax, catch up with the blog and do some research on Chile, before we had to get back to hard core travelling again.

Unfortunately we were slightly disappointed with the room as it wasn’t exactly our Wanaka lodge, it had no settee (two wicker chairs) a kitchen without oven or hotplates (just a microwave) and the loft bedroom was little more than a crawl space.  It’s one redeeming feature was that in had fantastic view of the Ice-Coated Hill’s (see what I did there!!).

Once we had settled in and transferred all our belongings including the travelling larder, we then drove to the supermarket to pick up some more food for the next few days (and some booze of course!!).

Arriving back at the hostel we also had a little spring clean of the car we had been driving round in for the last 3 ½ weeks as we had to return it the next day.

It had been a long day with a lot of driving and we were  too tired to go out and explore the town so instead we opted to stay indoors have a little party and have a simple meal of hotdogs, before climbing the hazardous ladder to limbo into bed!!!