An exciting and beautiful four day and three night adventure!
With the grandchildren in the middle of their two week winter break Dan and Annie put together a beautiful mini trip to the Fiordland National Park area on the very far Southwestern area of the South Island. From Wanaka to Milford Sound it is a 285 kilometer drive. (175 miles). I may have mentioned before that there are no freeways in New Zealand so the entire trip is on two lane highways and thus overall speeds are significantly slower than in the US. This may sound like a detriment but it’s quite the opposite. Although the trip is slower it is truly through magnificent scenery the entire way. A combination of snowcapped mountains, rugged low lining hills, forests, massive meadows, farm land, cattle and sheep pastures, lakes, rivers and creeks. Interspersed with small towns seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. We probably averaged about 50 MPH from Wanaka to Te Anau and 30MPH from Te Anau to the Milford Sound Ferry Terminal.
The small town of Te Anau was our base for three nights. Dan and Annie found two beautiful AirBnB’s for us and they were very spacious and comfortable. We intended to do some outdoor walking and sightseeing but were quite hampered by the weather. The first full day in Te Anau there was a steady, fairly hard rain but we still ventured out and spent time at a bird sanctuary and saw some very beautiful and unique birds. Small streams were running everywhere so we had to do some serious leg stretching to get over them. All very much worth it. We finally had had enough of the cold and rain and headed back to the rental for some game playing. None of us like losing so we had some real battles but everyone was having a good time with jokes and gentle insults flying back and forth. We have been playing a lot of poker with some loose local rules so Dan decided that we should all learn how to play exactly how they play in Las Vegas! This changed the strategy a lot but we all got a lot of fun out of it. Naturally Dan took everyone’s money! A big thanks to our friend, Sue Flint, for giving us a huge wad of “play” $100 bills a few years ago and we continue to use them repeatedly.
The next morning was July 19th and it was the beginning of Malcie’s 11th birthday. We got up earlier than we wanted to but with a pile of presents on the table Malcie didn’t feel like waiting around. Lots of fun with the openings and the singing.
The highlight of the trip was the 75 mile drive out to Milford Sound. There is very little in the world to compare to this drive other than perhaps driving in the Swiss Alps. The two-way road is very narrow with a few one way bridges. We drove through hills and massive mountains the entire way, with water everywhere including large lakes, small lakes, creeks, rivers, waterfalls and everything in between. Something dramatic to see around every curve. We made a few stops along the way to see some very special sights. The nearby pictures tell a beautiful story way better than any words I may come up with. A big thanks to Dan and Annie suggesting these stops. We knew that when we got to the Ferry Terminal there would be no scheduled tours available because of the time of year and the weather but it made no difference. Yes, it would have been nice to cruise in the Sound and see more beautiful landscape but none of us felt we missed out on anything. We visited the Tourist Center/restaurant and celebrated Malcie’s birthday with singing and a very delicious cake! We did have our first encounter of flying bugs, namely Sand Flies, a nasty cousin of the mosquito. We have had none in Wanaka but they were out in force at the Sound. The kids said keep walking and the won’t bite. Good advice as none of us suffered any bites. Dan suggested a contest to count the number of waterfalls we would pass. The guesses were in the 15 to 30 range. Dan went last with 115. Malcie stopped counting after we passed Dan’s guess. Actual number had to be in excess of 300. These were serious big volume falls. We were awestruck. We stopped at one that was right next to road and I took a one minute video of it. Instant death if you fell into it! Another stop was made at a flimsy suspension bridge over a rushing river. I really doubted crossing it but was shamed by the kids so I did it. Joan wisely declined and was unmercifully teased about it. We all survived! This was a drive that will be long remembered. I urge our readers to go on line and check out both Te Anau, Milford Sound and anything else you can find of the actual drive. We finally got back into town after dark and had a very nice dinner in a kind of Western Restaurant. We all left stuffed.
The next morning we had planned to take a tour of the Te Anau Glowworm Caves but because of all the rain the Caves were flooded and the entrance blocked. This was unfortunate as the caves are the home of thousands of worms that have a tiny light, the result of a chemical reaction, that attract insects for food. Joan had toured this years ago and said we unfortunately missed a very cool trip. I’m sure we’ll have another opportunity at another time. We needed to vacate the AirBnB by 10am so we drove back to Wanaka in time for a nice afternoon nap.
Check out the pictures.
Waterfall video
