Milford Sound 🌄

After studying the weather forecasts we believed we had an opportunity to be at Milford Sound on a clear day so we set off in that direction! On the way we stopped at Rakatu Wetlands for a look around and then at Frasers beach on the shores of Lake Manapouri. 


We did a few other stop offs whilst on the route up from Te Anau, it's one road in and out from Milford Sound and it's extremely scenic so shouldn't be rushed. We had lunch next to Lake Mistletoe and checked out the Mirror Lakes, unfortunately it was too breezy for their wonderful reflections. We had time to chill at our DOC campsite, where we met a friendly Weka. A fellow camper asked to borrow our stove as he'd unexpectedly ran out of gas and in return gave us a bottle of wine so we had a cheese and wine evening huddled in the van. 


Next morning we woke to freezing temperatures but visible mountains which was a good sign. We did a walk up to Key Summit and the views were just magnificent, it was amazing and so clear. There was also a toilet where we didn't expect it! 



We then headed all the way up to Milford Sound, stopping on the way to see some cheeky Kea. When we arrived we were so happy that it wasn't raining and we had a clear view! It's the wettest place in New Zealand and when we came in 2017 we couldn't see a thing, so we were an extremely pleased pair. We hung around a while to watch the sunset and think about the wonderful day we had. 




There is onky one site where you can stay in a camper at Milford Sound, so as you can imagine it's annoyingly expensive, but we spent the night and woke to plenty of cloud the next morning so felt very lucky. We now planned to go back on ourselves and hop on over to Stewart Island, so we set off south, stopping to look at some waterfalls and to do a walk at Lake Gunn in the drizzle. 



We treated ourselves to some food in Te Anau then carried on to Lumsden, about 1.5 hours from the ferry point in Bluff, we stayed in the centre of town at a free camp, which had a steam train you could go in and sit inside! Super fun. 



I'm a little behind at blogging and we have been to Stewart Island and are now up in Queentown. I'm going to do a separate one of our adventures there otherwise this will just be soooo long. 


Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕 





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