Day 14: January 14, Lake Manapouri to Milford Sound

What an incredible day. A short drive from the scenic spot of our hotel on the lake brought us to the Kepler Track. There are 9 Great Walks in NZ, and this is one of them, and the only one to be created specifically as a Great Walk. Which simply means that it was designed with tourists in mind. (NZ benefits greatly from tourism, and so makes efforts in hospitality and nature to support that important industry). The Kepler Track is a 60 km several day walk with huts throughout, but we just took on a short section, Rainbow Bridge to Control Gate, 10.9km. The track was mostly leaf and wood chip, so soft underneath, with occasional sections of light gravel. It ran along side the Waiau River and was mostly shady with undulating hills. Great ferns lined the path, and little mossy mounds were reminiscent of either a hobbit village or Watership Down. We marveled at how moss grows on the south side of trees in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite of the northern. The sounds were of birds and insects making their bird and insect sounds, and boots along the path, and the river rushing by; it is known as the river of swirling currents, and you could almost hear that as it rushed by.

We were done by about noon, and drove into the town of Te Anau for a picnic lunch at a bird sanctuary along the river. The Tekahe was the primary bird being protected, as it has neared extinction in the past several decades. It’s a flightless bird, and quite shy, so difficult to see through the fenced enclosure. Also on site were various types of ducks, including one I hadn’t seen before with a completely white head, and several with brilliant blue feathers underneath their wings. It was a lovely break.

Then we were on to the Routeburn Track, another of NZ’s Great Walks. This one is also a multi day track, but we were able to take on the climb to Key Summit, at 950m. Rather than stairs, this was a typical switchback trail, and the first part of it was wooded and shady. Once we broke through the tree line, there was the most astounding views of various snow covered peaks of the Southern Alps. The wind had picked up, which is not unusual for this part of NZ, but it about blew me over more than once. (I actually got blown sideways into a slight ditch on the side of the path just as a couple were passing on their way down, and thinking that I had stepped aside for them to pass on the narrow trail, they thanked me!).

Once we had all arrived at the top of the ridge, one of our guides pulled out a bottle of bubbles and some plastic glasses for us to toast our success at making to the top. The mountains in the distance were jaw-dropping, and just around the bend you could see a glacier lake sandwiched between two of the peaks. Before we all were blown off the summit we headed back down, feeling quite accomplished and with memory cards in our heads and in our cameras quite full.

From the base we had about a 45 minute drive further west to Milford Sound, which technically is not a sound but a fjord. The difference being whether it’s a valley flooded by a river (usually a “V” shape), and a fjord is a valley flooded by glacial water, a “U” shape. The views on the drive here were some of the most astounding yet, and looked like the postcards and posters you see of NZ and say to yourself “I’ve got to go there!” Once in the Sound, a quick trip around the harbor provided further photo ops, and since the weather is so changeable, and we may have more clouds tomorrow, we all wanted to be sure to have our own pics of the Mitre Point and other mountains across the water.

We are staying at the only accommodation in Milford Sound, which is a lodge, and fairly basic, with private rooms for us, but shared bathrooms. Dinner was in the restaurant tonight, and we had some laughs thinking about how these trips (or a factionalized version of them) would make great TV — “The Office meets Bear Grylls meets The Love Boat”, with special guest stars as the travelers each week.

The wind is howling outside, calling our planned sea kayaking trip in the early morning into question, but if it falls through, we will have a Milford Sound cruise instead. Off to try to sleep now.