6/1 DOC camp, Lake Gunn
A long drive via Te Anau towards Milford Sound. We stayed at Lake Gunn and went swimming in the lake. It was a very nice, sunny evening.
7/1 in the car outside Milford Sound Lodge
When we woke up in the morning it had been raining all night and there was now a small stream outside our tent, conveniently between us and where the car was parked. We had to take the tent down in the rain and then went to Milford Sound where we could at least park the car at the Lodge and sit in the longe as it rained all day almost. Inthe evening we were able to go for a little walk down to look at the sound.
8/1 Milford Sound Lodge
In the morning we walked to the marina and the airfield that was buzzing with traffic - planes and helicopters landing and taking off incessantly. In the afternoon we went on the Milford Sound Cruise, where we saw lots of waterfalls and also dolphins who came up and rode next to the boat for almost 20 min.
9/1 Steamers Beach Backpackers, Te Anau
This time we could
see something on the drive up from Milford Sound as the weather was good. We stopped at The Chasm, which is a short walk into the forest and there the river has cut through some softer rock making av very deep chasm. When you were standing on the bridge the water was at least 20 m down. We also went on a short alpine vegetation information walk next to the Homer tunnel. This tunnel was built between the 30's and 60's and without it there would be no way to get to Milford Sound except by boat. We then went up to Key Summit, where you see three rivers at once - the Hollyford, going out to the west coast and two others going to the south and east coasts respectively. Very dissapointing accomodation, but we met some Swedish people who had just done the Kepler Track that we were starting the next day.
10/1 Luxmore Hut, Kepler Track
The day started out with us being really late and my backpack was terrible heavy. The walk upto the hut was 6 hours and about 800 m up.
11/1 Iris Burn Hut, Kepler Track
We climbed Mt Luxmore. It
was really windy and I got tired. Then we had to go down 900 m and I got a pain in my knee that made it very hard to go down. At the hut we went for a bath in the Iris Burn river. I found an interesting book about etiquette (Ms Manners guide to excruciatingly correct behaviour). None of us wanted to sleep in the top bunk, which was very clasutrophobic, so in the end I slept on the floor on the mattress.
12/1 Moturau Hut, Kepler Track
Another Swim in the Lake when we got to the hut after a days walk through the forest. This hut was much quietet and not so full as the others, so we could both have a bottom bunk and I slept very well.
13/1 Steamer's Beach, Te Anau
I opted for the shorter walk (1h30min) and took the bus from Rainbow Reach with Gernots backpack. He then ran all the way back in 2 hours, while I had a nice quiet time relaxing in front of the TV. We watched a really bad movie about a woman who was betrayed by her husband over a horsefarm and went to
jail innocent, then another bad movie about a mad woman who lived with her mad father who was a genius mathematician. And then a good movie about a weapons dealer with Nicolas Cage.
14/1 -"-
Rainy day, nothing to do.
15/1 Fiordland Navigator, Doubtful Sound
We drove to Manapouri, where we went by boat over Lake Manapouri and then by bus over to Doubtful Sound, where we boarded our overnight cruise. The weahter was rainy and claudy, but we still went kayaking from the boat. In the evening there was an amazin buffet with salads, main courses and lots of lovely dessert (lemon cheesecake, Pavlova, berries aso).
16/1 Aspen Lodge, Queenstown
In the morning the weather had cleared and the sun was out and everything was beautiful. We saw dolphins again. Then a long drive back to Queenstown.
Dolphinsnext to the boat in Milford Sound
New Zealand's Flag
Map of New Zealand