Milford Sound

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We were pretty much dreading the 2 hour journey to Milford Sound because of the warnings of the roads being difficult to drive on in the winter, and had been advised to take a guided tour there instead. Thing was, we wanted to stay the night there, and the tours pretty much take you their and back in the blink of an eye, and also we wanted the freedom of stopping off anywhere we wanted to on the way to take pictures or have a breather.

Milford Sound is as much about the scenic journey there (from Te Anua - just one road in), on winding roads around mountians and rivers and lakes, as it is about the actual end destination. And we had a few stops on the way. Luckily the driving conditions were not bad at all, and we really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. But then again we had undertaken the worst journey in history the day before from Cadrona - so everything was easy in comparison.

There are a few stops off on the way which are must photograph spots. Mirror lakes is absolutely beautiful on a sunny day (which we had - lucky us) - as the lake reflects all of the mountains around it - hence the name. The next stop was Cascade Creek, which does what it says on the tin - a bubbling little creek through a pine forest - quite a peaceful place to stop. We whizzed past Lake Gun as we were beginning to dordle a bit - but we saw it from the car and it looked lovely (although we had seen a lot of beautiful lakes so far). We took a detour off the main track, about 10 kilometres to a waterfall - the name escapes me - but it was incredibly high. A short trek through some rainforest took us to it, and on the way back we stopped off at a "i'm a celebrity get me out of here" style rope bridge over a fast flowing turquoise river. Back on the main track we then stopped off for some breathtaking views of the mountains ahead before venturing through Homer's Tunnel - which is a bit eerie to say the least. Piercing through the moutain, Homer's Tunnel is pitch black and plunges downward from the Te Anua end. It is a bit disorientating when you come from the daylight - and you have to time it right so that no cars are coming the opposite way.

When we eventually got to Milford Sound itself it way midday and we grabbed some lunch and then headed off to our ferry. We had booked a ferry boat tour through Jucy - a fantastic deal of two for one, way cheaper than all the rest of the ferrys were offering. We also pretty much had the boat to ourselves (well there were 6 of us in total) as we had opted for the afternoon cruise which was less popular than the morning ones (only because most of the tour groups had to dart back to Te Anua or Queenstown early, whereas we had as much time as we wanted as we were staying here the night.

The cruise was brilliant value. It took us the whole way round the Milford Sound gorges and out to the river mouth. We saw seals, the odd penguin, waterfalls - and had a pod of dolphins swimming with our boat which was so exciting. One or two of them ride at the bow of the boat for about 5 minutes while the others swim alongside. It's great fun, they are such beautiful creatures and so naturally people friendly. It didn't take any enticing to get them to come over and see us.

An hour later and we had found a nice little spot (a DOC campsite) to park up for the night. We cooked noodles on our little stove, had a glass of wine and fell asleep pretty soon. Just us and no one else around for miles. We were the only ones camping in that campsite that night. This is the life!

The journey the next morning back from Milford Sound, again was pretty smooth. No snow or ice on the roads - another sunny day, but this time a long journey ahead of us. We were heading to the East Coast - Dunedin (which means Glasgow in Maori), a little scottish settlers town which backs on to the Otago Peninsular...................

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