Day 29 - Fiordland : Walking

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The weather today was fantastic - blue skies with a little cloud over the mountains; it was warm and sunny. :o) Apparantly 2 out of 3 days in Fiordland consist of rain anc cloud so we were lucky to get another fine day. We were desperate to do some hiking (as we've hardly been able to do any) so today was perfect - plus hiking is nice and cheap! We decided to do two 3hr walks...

The first walk was to the top of Key Summit. The track was well made and very easy going; it started off in thick bush where we saw several Kea parrots along the way. The walk followed the mountain side and zig-zagged out of the bush into a lush alpine area upon the summit. Once on top, we saw panoramic views of snow capped peaks and countless mountain tops and ridges. The views were great.

The second walk was to Lake Marion which was situated in a hanging valley. This track was a little harder but much more fun - the whole back was a riddle of rocks and tree roots, and involved climbing over fallen trees and into and back out of dry creek beds. It was a fairly steep climb into the hanging valley where we found Lake Marion. The lake sat between steep mountain sides (almost vertical cliffs on one side) where many large waterfalls fell into the lake. At the head of the valley large pointy mountains sat covered in snow and ice.

In the evening we left Fiordland because we needed some free road side parking; felt satisified with what we'd seen (although more would have been nice!), and still had a lot to see and drive.

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