To Milford Sound

I’ve been hanging out in Te Anau for a couple days waiting for the weather pattern to change. I’m still faced with at least two days of rainy weather in Milford Sound, but I decided to move down there anyhow to be ready in case it breaks earlier than forecast. I didn’t stop at any of the places that I had already been to on my first short foray toward the Sound. The weather was at least as good and in most cases better that time. I did stop at one place that I had skipped and was rewarded with a nice walk through the forest to Lake Gunn. I also had some weather breaks at some of the places that I wanted to visit further along the way. I have most of the route from Te Anau to Milford Sound covered. Hopefully I can catch the other spots in decent weather on the way out. When I arrived here and registered at the campground (the one and only campground here), the girl at reception warned me that they and been informed that the pass was expected to get enough snow to close tonight and it might not open up until the following day. I sort of figured I would be here until Monday anyhow, so I elected to get snowed in. The one advantage is that there will be no tour buses getting in tomorrow. It won’t snow down this low, I’m near sea level. I think they will close the road more because of avalanche danger than snow accumulation. I saw one avalanche on the way in today. At first I thought it was a really cool big waterfall. By the time I got my camera on it, it was slowing down and I realized what it really was.


The forest trail to Lake Gunn has huge trees and nearly everything is covered in a lush carpet of moss.


There was quite a bit of wind coming across Lake Gunn and some interesting clouds. On a clear day, there would be some majestic mountains where the clouds are. Maybe on the way out I can do this again with different weather.


This is the view from just over the pass on the way down toward Milford Sound.


Another view near the pass.


This is just a short distance before the Homer Tunnel.


This is looking back up toward the pass from the same area.


There were several Kea’s near the parking area. A Kea is New Zealand’s endemic Alpine Parrot species. You don’t normally expect to see Parrots in a cold snowy environment. They are fairly large, almost the size of a Macaw. But they are not very colorful. They are in my campground too. I can hear one hopping around on top of my motorhome right now.


These are the mountains that the Homer tunnel goes through.


The tunnel is about a mile long and is one lane. So there are traffic signals at each end that let batches of cars go through. There’s a countdown timer next to the stop light that tells you about how long you will have to wait. I had five minutes so I got out, took some photos, then got back in and scrounged up a snack form the galley.


This place is called “The Chasm”. A river drops down through a series of slots in the rock forming a string of cascading waterfalls.


Here, looking straight down in to one of the chasms, the water seems to stretch into streaks before breaking up in to whitewater.


This spot is on an old suspension bridge that is used as a walkway now. A new bridge carries the highway traffic. So you can get out in the middle of the river without worrying about the cars and buses.


This is Mitre Peak at Milford Sound.


Another view of Mitre Peak with a momentary clearing at the top.


This is the side of the cliff next to my campground. I see this when I look out the right side windows. There are about a dozen waterfalls coming down the cliff face.


This is what I see if I look out the left side windows.