Blogs from Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

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 ... read more

MILFORD SOUND Milford Sound was previously named Milford Haven, by a Welshman of course, but was later renamed Milford Sound. They got that wrong as well, as it is not a “sound” (which is formed by water erosion) but a “fjord” (formed by glaciation). What’s in a name though, the whole area is beautiful. The scenery really starts at Te Anau and gets progressively better the closer you get to Milford Sound. (For anyone with campervans, there is no “freedom camping” along this stretch but there are lots of suitable Dept. Of Conservation sites along the way. When we got into the valley, we found out that from May on, during winter, it was a legal requirement that vehicles carried snow chains. Guess who didn’t have snow chains! They were an optional extra by the campervan ... read more

John, Edel and I were on the road together again to head towards Milford Sound. What is this place I hear you say? A sound is technically a glacier valley which has been taken over by a river. This is what some of the first settlers here called Milford. It is actually a fiord. A fiord is a glacier valley which has been covered over by sea water. It is one of the most visited and easily accessible tourist trips in New Zealand but it was also reported to be one of the best. So off we headed in the Mysteron. The road there was a mix between back county flatlands at times to high mountain and lake valleys. The weather was dull and cloudy with rain so lots of them were covered along the way, ... read more

Jim from New Zealand Wild Escapes picked us up a bit before 7:30am, right on schedule. We then picked up two other tourists, Bruce and Nick from their hotel. Our destination for the day was Milford Sound. As the crow flies Milford Sound is only about 70km west of Queenstown, unfortunately there are no roads through the mountains so to get there we end up driving almost 300km. The first leg is south through the sheep and deer stations along the southern arm of Lake Wakatipu. We then turn west for a bit and at the town of Te Anau we turn back north through the Fiordlands National Park. Te Anau is a cute combination of farm town and backpacker & camper stop. We were able to stretch our legs there for a half hour or ... read more

Milford Sound today......wow.........check out the pics!... read more