It was time for us to leave the Cursed
Catlins behind us, and head (hopefully) for greener pastures. Unfortunately, it
was off to a bad start as the weather was horrendous and we were also up an
hour later than planned as the bloody clocks had gone forward!
We packed up back into the van and set off
for Invercargill – again for another fleeting visit to stock up on food, beers
and fuel before venturing into the wilderness.
Pretty much as soon as we left the town it
was ridiculous. There was a horrendous side wind coming off the sea and through
the valley which meant I was pretty much holding the wheel aimed a good 30
degrees left of centre for most of the time – then whenever we passed a block
of sheltering trees it’d die right off and you’d have to recorrect for a few seconds
before being blown back towards the middle of the road again!
As we’d set off late and the weather was so
bad – we decided to camp at Te Anau that night – it’s a couple of hours outside
of Milford Sound and also had a spa & sauna on site which Lisa was pretty
excited about. It had been pretty cloudy and rainy the whole way in – but as
luck would have it, literally as we pulled into the office parking area the sun
broke through and it cleared right up! We booked in for the night, and got a
pretty good spot with a view of the lake.
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| Sunset views at Te Anau |
After a brief unpack – I dragged Lisa out
to see Lake Te Anau whilst the sun was still shining (although it was still
FREEZING outside). It was really beautiful there, the lake stretched out and
was met by mountains on most sides into the distance – through the clouds you
could catch glimpses of snow on their peaks too. There was a 30 minute walk
alongside the lake to a nature reserve which we decided to go for before it
chucked it down with rain again. It was run by the DOC, and housed a host of
native and introduced NZ birds – our favourite was the Kea, an alpine parrot
which looked pretty dark and dull on the surface until he opened his wings and
they were a brilliant combination of red and green underneath.
Afterwards we were both cold – so went to
find out about booking the spa and sauna – only to discover that it had been
broken the week before! We were suitably gutted, so bought some internet to
plan our attack on Milford Sound the next day while the rain beat down all night.
The next morning the weather hadn’t
improved much – and the forecast was for more of the same, but was meant to be
improving the day afterwards. Having come quite a long way down the track (It’s
a good 500km round trip via Te Anau) we were determined to see the sound on at
least a non-rainy day!
We hedged our bets and booked in to the
only camping spot down at Milford Sound and after a brief supply and fuel run
in Te Anau (I got myself some gloves, finally!) we hit the road around midday.
The first part of the drive had some pretty amazing scenery – the road went
alongside the lake for an hour or so, with the peaks again popping out through
the clouds every once in a while.
Soon afterwards we descended down into a
huge valley which you could see into for what felt like hundreds of miles,
towards more mountains in the distance. The weather had actually started to
clear up by this point and we stopped to take a couple of pictures by a river
camping spot, thinking it would be a good place to stay – in summer.
We wound through some forest area for 45
minutes or so, then all of a sudden our outlook changed quite dramatically. We
had stopped at a lookout briefly to check out the scenery, then drove down a
fairly steep windy part of the road and were instantly surrounded by the
mountains. Every so often there were “no stopping for the next 800m – avalanche
hazard” signs, and looking up from the van windows you could see waterfalls and
rivers cascading down from the peaks over a thousand metres up.
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| Winter wonderland |
Finally we reached a “safe” spot with a
load of parking spots and could get out to have a look around. There was snow
everywhere on the ground, as far as you could see! (Four years in Brisbane
makes you appreciate it more now I think). The views were spectacular and we
hung around for about 30 minutes taking pictures, making snowballs and
generally looking stunned. We had no idea it’d be such a winter wonderland!
We set off again, and were soon facing
another challenge – the tunnel. Again, completely unprepared and having not
read about the journey much it was a bit of a shock as we entered the tunnel
that it was only one lane for most of it, and about 100m in we came across a
HUGE tourist bus bearing down on us! Rapidly I had to throw it in reverse and
back out, not really being able to see much in either direction which was fun!
We let the bus and a few cars go by then went back inside, nervously creeping
along at about 30km/hr.
The walls were just exposed rock, streaming
with water and dimly lit from the struggling overhead lights. There was one
passing bay and the tunnel was about 2km long so there was a bit of a traffic
jam at one point, with a large wedge shaped tourist bus passing within a foot
of us – I feared for the safety of our van (well, the safety of our bond!). It
looked pretty much the same inside as it would’ve 70 or 80 years ago when it
was completed I imagine – aside from the sealed road.
After 5 or 10 minutes of panic, we made it
out in one piece and were immediately onto a rather precariously windy piece of
avalanche exposed road and rapidly descending down into another valley, again
with an amazing view of the mountains either side. We felt pretty insignificant
as we trundled down in Polly (we’ve now named her), and were both in awe of it
all a little. The LP reckoned even if you didn’t go on a cruise around Milford
Sound that the drive there was still worth the trip and I reckon they were onto
something! Another safe parking place emerged so we stopped to catch our breath
and it was even snowier than the first one – there was even a couple of Kea
hanging about in the road waiting for scraps of food from tourists!
Another 30 minutes or so down the road and
we were in the ‘town’ of Milford Sound – which basically consisted of a large
ferry terminal, couple of cafes and booking centres and a disused (and fuck
ugly) motel complex. We weren’t sure how it could have been disused though,
because it had a rather spectacular view of the entrance to Milford Sound –
which we sat and enjoyed for a while and had a stroll briefly along the
waterfront as the weather was holding.
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| First glimpse of Milford Sound |
It was briefer than planned though as we
immediately encountered Milford Sound’s best kept secret – the sandfly. As soon
as you are out of the van, there are at least half a dozen of them buzzing
about your face. They are only small – smaller than your average housefly, but
they are persistent little bastards and they also bite. Fortunately we’d been
warned about them already and so were mentally prepared to not be spending much
time outside – aside from our boat trip, and apparently they weren’t a problem
once you were cruising along.
We headed to the campgrounds, which were OK
– although they were doing some renovation work on the mens bathrooms so
everyone was sharing the ladies, which seemed fine when we arrived at 4pm and
made up half of the guests in the park. But come 8pm it was packed with
families and other backpackers so was a bit of a nightmare! Lisa had an
afternoon nap after we’d checked in, and I went for an explore armed with the
camera and a boyish sense of adventure. I jumped over rivers, climbed rocks and
trees, saw some cool native birds with their chicks and got bitten by sandflies
– it was an entertaining hour!
We decided to chance it and book onto one
of the tours at 9:15am the next day as the weather was meant to be staying
clear and we’d figured they would be the quietest as all the busses arrived at
11am – plus they were about 25% cheaper. I called up and even managed to blag a
$20 discount and a free muffin too which was a result!
We tried to get an early night in
preparation for actually being on time for the cruise – but then the weather
turned again, and it smashed it down all evening which didn’t exactly fill us
with confidence for the trip tomorrow!
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