Te Anau and Milford Sound (4.11.12 - 7.11.12)

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The drive from Wanaka to Te Anau was via Queenstown, and some of the craziest roads yet. 180* turns down the mountainside with stunning views. After Queenstown it levelled out and was mostly rolling hills and farmland. On arriving at Te Anau we checked into our holiday park before a quick wander around and a BBQ and DVD night.
In New Zealand they have a series of walking tracks called the great walks. These are really well planned out multi day walks with smart camping barns to stay in at designated points along the walk. Unfortunately due to the speed of our south island road trip, we couldn't really spare 4 days for a walk, so we planned to walk the first part of the Kepler track, from Te Anau. This meant we set off early to walk up mount Luxmore to the first camping hut, resulting in a climb to about 1100m, a walk said to take 6 hours from the car park but took more like 2 1/2. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and cloudy and snowing on the top, but we took some pictures, had our lunch and set off back down again. We were back at The van within 6 hours. It was a fun walk through thick jungle land and with great lake views. After this we headed on the road for Milford Sound. We were on a morning boat cruise on the lake the next day, so planned to stay at a local campsite for the night. The road from Te Anau to Milford is crazy (the craziest yet at least)! It involves driving along cliff edge winding roads and through deep glacial valleys with avalanche warnings along the road and evidence of really recent avalanches and landslides ( the road had only reopened from a landslide a few days before, and there was remnants of landslide and avalanche on both sides of the road). There were "no stopping, avalanche zone" signs all along the road - reassuring! The best part of the road being a 1000m long tunnel cut into a mountain, which although currently a two way road is apparently made a one way road with traffic lights outside of avalanche season. Not what you want to hear on a road so busy with buses! Finally we made it to our lovely little campsite on the banks of the river. We planned to head for the pub, as this was the day we were finally allowed a drink. Milford itself is tiny, maybe about 2 hotels and one bar, and a boat terminal. So we had a couple of nice quiet pints before heading back for tea and dvd's more rock and roll!
We had decided to book a 9am cruise as it was slightly cheaper and involved free breakfast, which turned out to be a brilliant idea! When we got on the boat, we were 2 of only about 25 people. The breakfast was cereal and toast and lots of free coffee and tea, perfect for the sunny but crisp morning. The views were stunning, it feels like we've been throwing this word around a lot but it's justified-honest. During the 90 minute cruise, we saw penguins and seals as well as views of the famous Mitre Peak and numerous large waterfalls, the biggest had a drop of more than 100m. The thing about Milford Sound is that the mountains around the sound dwarf everything, it makes you feel tiny on your boat that holds a couple of hundred people. It's a bit bizarre and your perspective gets a bit blurred. After the cruise we drove home via some beautiful valley viewpoints, and then the Divide, the starting point of the Routeburn Track another of the kiwi great walks. Here we climbed key summit, taking us to about 900m, where we had some stunning valley views. We had some lunch back in the van and them drove for Te Auau, by the same interesting route as the day before. Thankfully for us, only meeting one bus on a hill and one in the tunnel (luckily going our way)!
We only stayed one night more in Te Anau, where we did some Internet bits and pieces and had a few drinks in town. Tomorrow we continue our trip south.

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