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Published: February 14th 2007
Lake Te Anau
Here fishy, fishy, fishy.We've been staying with Marianne and Geoff since the 8th of Feb, and on the weekend they took us up to their holiday home in Te Anau. Te Anau is only an hour north of Winton and 2 hours away from Milford Sound so it was a good place to base ourselves for things in the area. Te Anau is a nice little town that despite being a tourist spot is not that touristy. The first night there (10th Feb) Geoff and Marianne took us out on their boat for a cruise around the lake. Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in NZ, it is 352km2, 61km long and the deepest part is 417m; and with that much water you'd think you'd be able to find at least one fish! Although Geoff assured us there is fish in the lake the only thing we caught was a log.
On the 11th the 4 of us drove to Milford Sound for a boat crusie through the Sound. We left early for the 2 hour drive so we could stop at all the things to do and see along the way to Milford. We stopped at Eglinton Valley, an area
Lake Gunn
The lake and beech trees. formed by glaciers, Mirror Lakes, lakes famous for reflections of moutains but it was too windy that day. We also did a short walk to through native red beech forests to Lake Gunn and visited Gunn's camp for a quick look at the museum that was there. The moutains on the way to Milford were huge and they all had waterfalls coming off them, we don't know exactly how tall the moutains were but they were freakin huge! The place would be something to see in the rain because the water would be rushing off the moutains. To get to Milford you have to drive through the Homer Tunnel, this tunnel was started in 1935 and took 20 yrs to finish because of the avalanches and the fact that they had to tunnel through a moutain!
We discovered that there isn't much to the town of Milford, it probably isn't even considered a town since all there was, was 1 hotel, a cafe, a airport, and a ferry terminal for all the boat that cruise the Sound. Milford Sound was pretty impressive with huge cliffs and peaks that surround the 22km long fiord. The highest moutain is Mitre Peak
Lake Gunn and Beech Trees
Native beech trees covered in moss. and is 1692m high. There were a couple waterfalls that were pretty big especially when our boat pulled in right beside one. We also pulled along side a small group of seals that were sleeping on the rocks and watched a couple of seals have an arguement over a particular rock. Milford Sound was really good and if anyone is ever in the area it is highly recommended.
On the way back to Te Anau we stopped at The Chasm, which is a short walk to see the Cleddau river rush through boulders in a narrow space causing a waterfall and a lot of noise. Once arriving back in Te Anau Geoff and Marianne headed back to Winton since they had to work on Monday. Its nice to be on holiday! Dave and I stayed in Te Anau to do some more touring around.
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