Today is the day which is going to be the most taxing on me because we estimated nearly 5 hours of driving. We took the stunning Crown Range Road, at 1120 m NZs highest public road, over the mountains and down into Queenstown. It is filled with tourists, so we did a quick refuel - both gas and food - and then hurried down and around the Eyre and Livingston Mountains to get to Fiordland National Park. A brief stop for coffee and to stretch our legs in Mossburn since we were all feeling tired and restless from the drive. After one more hour, we soon passed Te Anau and headed into the National Park. As we continued to drive along the shores of Lake Te Anau (NZs 2nd biggest, 417 m deep), I knew that the extensive drive today is worthwhile. I could hear Hannah and Francis's cameras clicking away as I drove past mountains and spectacular beech forests.
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| Views along Crown Range road |
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The only way to see the whole view is using the
Panoramic function of the camera |
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| Lunch along the way |
As we entered Eglinton Valley, I immediately knew that we had to stop to gape at mountains surrounding a field. It was beyond what words can describe. Beautiful huge field surrounded by mountains ... it is very surreal. Along the way, we stopped again at Mirror Lakes to see the mountainous reflections, and of course, more photos.
We went through one more pass, The Divide, which is the lowest of all Southern Alps passes, stopped at Pops View for again, more pics, and entertainment from a couple of kea. The kea are really clever and inquisitive, but they are notoriously destructive as well! We have heard horror stories of them destroying windscreen rubber seals, and radio antenna, so I made sure they were NO WHERE near our campervan :)
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| Eglinton Valley |
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| It is very surreal |
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| Mirror lake |
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Kea... not on our campervan... some other tourists' car
who have no idea how cheeky these guys are :P |
After the short encounter with the kea, we continued driving along the winding and steep hills. It was about this time Hannah and I joked that Mom would not enjoy this drive at all. Some of the slopes were as steep as 18 degrees incline, and because the van was so heavy, it was rough on the brakes and engine. We finally hit the jaw-dropping and scary Homer Tunnel. (1.2 km long, 1929-1953 to build), and came out at the head of the Cleddau Valley. We nearly had heart attacks from the scenery - it was like we were finally in MIDDLE EARTH! We pulled over to take pics - A LOT of pics. After the breath-taking view at Cleddau Valley, we stopped at The Chasm to again take more pics - although we all agreed that it is hard to describe the place in the photos that we take, this is probably the only way we can remember this place! Finally, we are on to Milford.
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| We reached Middle Earth |
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| The Chasm |
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| Milford Sound |
We finally reached Milford Sound around 5pm, which was great because the place is almost empty! All the tourists were done with the day and they were heading back. Due to the constraint of the number of days on the road trip, we were not able to plan the ferry ride around the Milford Sound. However, we wandered around the harbour, took pics of Mitre Peak, and it was equally amazing. We then turned around and headed back out to find a campsite.
We stayed at Cascade Creek, a DOC site where the aforementioned icy creek empties into Lake Gunn. Hannah and I had the same idea of taking our shoes off and walking in the icy cold waters of the river. IT IS COLD! I think the water temperature must be 10 degC or lower because our toes were numb for a couple of hours later. It was refreshing :)
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| Camping for the night along Cascade Creek |
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| Francis taking pictures of clouds |
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| Hannah testing out the water! |
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