As we left Clyde heading for Te Anau, we had to swing by Clyde’s historic cardboard village created for their 150th anniversary celebration.
We were still packing leftovers from the prior days packed lunch supplied by the Waipiata Hotel so we pulled into a rest stop along the road that just happened to show up around lunch time. Pretty normal looking, right?
Now, take a look at the view!
Wind was blowing like mad but worth sitting through that to lunch with that view. A little further on, just past Mossburn, was the Red Tussock Conservation Area. This grass was indigenous to much of New Zealand but was pulled up in many areas and replaced with grasses more suited to grazing sheep and cattle. New Zealand is trying to retain and bring back indigenous species including these grasses and the animals which thrived in them. The wind was really blowing across the fields and you can get an idea of the size of the range and grasses when compared to Jeannie in the second picture.
We have two nights in Te Anau before our overnight cruise on the Doubtful Sound and the laundry has piled up again so here we are in another holiday park container cabin.
The NZ holiday parks really are wonderful. Shared kitchen facilities, laundry and bathrooms with tent and RV sites and cabins. All very clean and decent value. We settled in and got laundry done the day we arrived as the next day would be the drive to Milford Sound.
Milford Sound is the most popular sound for exploring the fjords with many options for cruises and flights. We have booked an overnight cruise on the quieter but much less accessible Doubtful Sound but we also wanted to do the very scenic drive to Milford Sound. We heard tales of the road being very crowded with campervans and tour buses but it really wasn’t too bad especially considering that this is NZ’s Labor Day weekend.
The first stop is the Eglinton Valley. It’s an amazing wide valley with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Only a few cars and two tour buses while we were there.
Mirror Lake is well named and well sign posted
We had a good nature walk at Lake Gunn. We were the only car there when we arrived and only a few more at the end of the walk, and no busses because the road to the trailhead was too narrow.
Then you get the tunnel. The tunnel is over a kilometer long, mostly unpaved and pretty poorly lighted. It’s one way and stoplight controlled. A long enough wait so that everyone jumped out of their cars and buses to snap the view. A pretty long queue of buses and cars by the time we could enter the tunnel; and a lot of great photos while we waited.
The Chasm was another WOW spot – a walk through the rain forest to get to a waterfall that has eroded a lunar-looking chute of crashing water.
And finally, we reached Milford Sound.
We switched drivers on the way back so that Tom could enjoy the scenery and I could keep eyes glued to the sometimes crazy winding road. A trip though the tunnel in the other direction and a few more stops. The views here are just endless.
