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To Milford Sound and back

Dɛn dɔn pablish am: 04.12.2017

The last days at Rex and Ave's, our two helix hosts, are already behind us. On Friday we left and headed towards Milford Sound. It was difficult for us to say goodbye to them again, but we know that we are always welcome there if we ever find ourselves in the Wanaka region again in our lives. Here are the last pictures of our stay with them:

A drawing of Rex and Ave's super cute, energetic and pregnant pug, Chloé

At the bottom left you can see Ave, above her is Peter, a young woman from Taiwan who, like us, found Rex and Ave through helpx and helped them together with us.

On our way to Milford Sound, we spent the first night in Lumsden. Lumsden is a small community that is on the way to Milford and where you can camp for free! In the center, where there used to be a train station, you are allowed to camp. There is even a small area for washing dishes and toilets are available. This is really nice, but of course the place also benefits from it: many people who take advantage of the opportunity to camp for free would probably not stop in Lumsden without the camping option. So the small shops in Lumsden can look forward to more visitors!

On Saturday morning we continued on our way, stopping at several beautiful lakes, including the Mirror Lakes, which have earned their name:

The Lake Te Anau also made a stop. At first we were a bit disappointed with Lake Te Anau because we had imagined the lake in Te Anau to be more beautiful, but then we noticed that it was due to the weather. The day was very cloudy and gray, and a bit colder than the other days.

We spent the night at the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite, which is closest to Milford Sound. The Department of Conservation operates 'affordable' campsites throughout New Zealand. Some of them are quite nice, but the campsites on the way to Milford Sound only have a pit toilet and no running water! That would be fine if you didn't have to pay the equivalent of €7.50 per person to stay there... Unfortunately, there was no alternative, so we had to accept it. The surroundings were beautiful, but there wasn't much to do there either. In the evenings, everyone sat in their cars because it was quite windy and rainy. We were afraid that our tent would fly away, as it doesn't exactly withstand a lot.

Our too small tent next to the slightly larger version.

During the night, the wind calmed down a bit and I slept unusually long. Around 11 o'clock we drove to Milford Sound, where we had booked a boat tour through the sound at 1:30 p.m.

Even on the way there, there was already a lot to see, including snow still on the ground at the end of the mountain, even though it wasn't that cold anymore.

Both from land and from the boat, Milford Sound looks as beautiful as it is always described, and we were really lucky with the weather! The region is the rainiest in New Zealand and rarely do you have a day without rain. During our boat tour, it was only slightly cloudy and even the sun peeked out occasionally! Unfortunately, we didn't see any humpback whales or dolphins during the tour, but we were able to observe many seals relaxing on the rocks.

After the boat tour, we drove back to Te Anau, stopping at a spot on the lake that we liked much better.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a large selection of campsites here, so we spent the night at the campsite, which cost us about €12 per person. Compared to the DOC campsite, though, it's acceptable, as there are proper sanitary facilities, free showers, and common areas and a kitchen.

Yesterday, on Monday, we drove to Manapouri, which is about 20 minutes south of Te Anau. Here we spent another night at a campsite. The lake is really beautiful and we want to do some walks today. We just hope that the weather improves a bit, as it has been raining/drizzling continuously since last night and it still looks quite gray. The weather was really nice yesterday, though!