18.11.2019 Milford Sound. No selfie or anything? Fraser's Beach and Key Summit

Despite the continuous rain, we decided to make our way from Monowai Lake (last free campground for this region) to Milford Sounds.
On the way there, we stopped at Fraser's Beach, where Jenny finally got to see her lupins bloom. And it finally stopped raining ;-).

From the town Te Anau to Milford Sound, there are several campsites, all 'maintained' by the DOC (Department of Conservation). These campsites vary in quality, some better equipped (with toilet and shower) and some less so. All the campsites with 'toilet only' cost 15 dollars per person per night, and the one and only with shower costs 20 dollars per person per night.
We drove all the way to the last DOC campground, 'Cascade Creek', and were rewarded with stunning views. Of course, it was still raining.
We immediately took advantage of the short breaks in the rain to explore the area and take a short walk at the campground.

In the evening, we folded down our van so that we could sit in it with Toni and watch the Werner movie :-D. The line 'Beinhart, no holiday or anything?' has been stuck in our heads ever since :-D.

Since we now have to pay for every overnight stay in this region, we wanted to make the most of each day (get up early).
We have several walks on our list, including one of the Great Walks, the Routeburn Track, and of course one of the famous boat tours through Milford Sound.

When we heard from other travelers that the road to Milford Sound would be closed in the evening for the night because snow was expected (so close to the beginning of summer) and the rain turned into freezing rain at night, we could already guess that our hike on the Routeburn (24 km) would most likely not happen.

In the morning, everything was frozen but we were rewarded with clear skies. We abandoned our plans to hike half of the Routeburn and simply drove straight to Milford Sounds. The boat tour is said to be the most beautiful when the sky is clear.
Halfway near Hollyford, we got stuck in traffic. The road to Milford Sound was still closed, it was supposed to open at 7:30 a.m., but when it was 8 a.m., it was still closed. What now?
We had the option to start the Routeburn, but we had planned 9 hours with breaks and photo stops, and since everything was too uncertain for us, we decided to wait.
2.5 hours later, we were informed that the road might not open at all that day..

Change of plans. We drove back to Te Anau to get ourselves a rain poncho, and then we did the 'Key Summit' walk on the Routeburn Track, which is a side trip on the track and doesn't actually belong to it but is separate.
It was said to take 3 hours return, but including photo stops and a few drink breaks, it took us 2.5 hours. There was even snow on the Key Summit and it was snowing, we had a little snowball fight :-D.

Tomorrow, we plan to hike the other half of the Routeburn Track from 'The Divide' to Lake Mckenzie Hut. That's a total of 24 km round trip. Why only half? You'll find out in the post about the Routeburn Track ;-).

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