Milford and Doubtful Sound

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June 7th 2011

Published: July 25th 2011

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WillandTory

Milford Sound

Milford & Doubtful Sounds

Onwards we go in our mean green camping machine! We left Wanaka and headed to Te Anau which would be our starting point for our drive to Milford Sound. We held up in the Fat Duck cafe by the fire which was most welcome, our cafe/pub criteria are: (1) Fire; (2) No drafts or overly loud music; (3) Good draft beer selection (that one is Will's only) - what do you mean we have bypassed middle age and gone straight to our twilight years!

The drive to Milford was great, we climbed up and over the mountains via the long tunnel which saw much of the area covered with ice and fog. We passed lakes which reflected the near by mountains and we also saw our first Kea parrot hanging out in a car park waiting for unwary tourists to feed them (which you shouldn't by the way as they die if you do). We got to Milford and had a good look round, we took plenty of photos using our timer which saw myself and Tory making 10 second dashes across uneven surfaces at great personal risk.

We headed back and stayed the

Mirror Lake

night at an odd (I think that is the best way of describing it) camper site in Manapouri. The place was nice but had unusual extras like New Zealand's largest Morris Minor collection and access to a room full of pinball machines.

The trip to Doubtful Sound was next up and this turned out to be one of our highlights of New Zealand. The day did not start well with low cloud and drizzle surrounding Manapouri lake which we took a boat across without seeing more than 100meters in each direction. However, after we got off the boat and took a coach over the mountains to the Sound we were suddenly treated to a crystal clear sunshiney day!

The Sound is spectacular (see one of our many photos) and we were even lucky enough to find a pod of Duskey dolphins which accompanied us under the bow of the boat. On the way back we went via the hydo electric power station which is situated deep underground which was also a great experience.

Travelers Tips: The Doubtful sound trip is more expensive than the one on Milford Sound but it is much less traveled, 2 hours longer