The drive across from East to West coast was again very beautiful. We drove to the small village of Te Anau to stay overnight before driving up to the sound the next morning. We were back at a DoC campsite for the night which was right on a lake front with around 3 other cars.
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| Our camp spot by the lake... an early start for us! |
What is a sound? Yes, same question we had been asking and still I couldn't tell you off the top of my head so here is a little plagiarism from the greatest of sources - Wiki:
Milford Sound is incorrectly named, as a sound is in fact a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, and wider than a fjord, while Milford Sound is formed by the actions of glaciers.
The road (SH94) leading to Milford can be pretty hairy as it gets a lot of snow throughout the year and can be completely shut or you need snow chains to drive on it. Fortunately enough for us we had the perfect day. An early start again as the drive takes just under 2hrs and we'd booked our boat out onto the sound for 9am.
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| Road SH94 - From Te Anau to Milford Sound through the Homer tunnel just up ahead. |
We arrived with plenty of time, checked in and were on our Jucy (same company who we hired the van from) cruise in no time.
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| I guess we are here then? |
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| Still waiting for the sun to make an appearance over the mountains - it's chilly! |
Milford sound is one of the wettest places in New Zealand with rainfall 200 days of the year. Again luckily for us it was a cold, crisp but beautifully sunny day. The cruise took around 1hr45 mins and the boat must have had no more than 30 of us on it. We saw seals playing in the water and followed them in the boat for a short while :) Andy took some ace photos for you all to appreciate :)
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| We were the first boat out that morning so the water was acting as a perfect mirror |
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| Oh an onboard our 'cruise' you get unlimited tea and coffee included |
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| And we're off... |
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| Andy on his 20th cup of coffee - it's free! |
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| That's right, we shared a massive boat with just these people, benefits to being somewhere off season :) |
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| Milford Sound selfie, it was so cold that our faces had actually frozen into a forced smile |
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| Just another beautiful view, let me know when you're bored with these. Sorry, I can't hear you |
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| Starting to see the seals appear, very playful |
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| The water is so clear! |
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| Waterfalls too |
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| On our way back after a fantastic experience |
We then drove back up the windy road to Te Anau but stopped off for a 3hr walk through the national park and a stop off at the mirror lakes.
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| After the sound we stopped along the road back to Te Anau to take in a good walk |
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| Mr Mountain 2014 |
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| I can't stop adding photos... Can you blame me? |
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| Well deserved lunch break, accompanied by flask tea :) |
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| Rob and Carla we saw this and thought of you, you'll be far more prepared than we will ever be! (We forgot our avalanche probe) |
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| Back to the campsite for some r and r |
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| Andy trying to decide if here was the best place to do his ice bucket challenge, you remember them don't you? |
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| End |
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