Clan Haley

Te Anau and Milford Sound

On Thursday morning we got ourselves packed up before heading to meet Laura's online pilates instructor (Anna) (who used to live in Edinburgh), but returned home to Dunedin over Covid. We had a lovely time talking about all sorts of things like various differences between UK and NZ. After eating our weight in waffles we got in the car and started the drive across the country to Te Anau and Fjordland National park. On arrival we got our tent setup and cooked dinner before an early night.

This morning we needed to be up and at it as we had a 2 hour drive along one of the most beautiful roads ever from Te Anau to Milford Sound. If you read online it's often described as a difficult and slow road, but it was far better than most A roads in Scotland. You start in open countryside with fantastic views down the valley towards some amazing snow capped peaks. After a while you find yourself in an old forest (or bush as the locals would say) with everything covered in lichen. Once you exit that you climb your way up towards the Homer Tunnel which is cut through one of the aforementioned peaks. From there you descend right down to sea level to Milfod Sound Ferry Terminal.

We got very lucky as we had an almost completly cloudless sky. Given the rainfall here is measured in m and they have over 200 rainy days a year the views we got were spectacular. Milford Sound really is one of those things you have to see in person. The 1300m sheer rockfaces plunging straight into the sea are amazing. Unfortunately no dolphins or penguins on this boat ride, but it was awesome none the less.

On our drive home we stopped at various amazing viewpoints and had a couple of short walks. On one of the walks near Lake Gunn we were treated to the amazing sound of the bellbird. In addition to that we also saw a south island robin which was pretty cool along with a couple of cheeky Keas.