We woke up fairly early the next day to make the drive to Milford Sound. The weather was cloudy and ominous looking, and I wondered whether the rain would ever stop following us. When looking at a map, the drive to Milford Sound seems unnecessarily long, however, I appreciated every minute we were on the road. The views were some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, and the scale of the place cannot even be depicted in these photos. There were multiple designated "scenic areas" that we stopped at along the way to take pictures. We all traded driving every hour, so that we could all just sit back and watch the scenery.
Te Anu- the town where we stopped for gas and lunch supplies
Te Anu- the lake where we ate lunch.
First glimpse of the Southern Alps
Eglinton Valley; carved by glacial ice over 10,000 years ago.
Me standing in the valley
Mirror Lakes
Lake Gunn- a half an hour nature walk.The strange thing about walking in the forest in New Zealand is that there is almost no wildlife at all. All mammals were introduced to the country by Maori and Europeans. While hiking, you can only hear the occasional bird chirp. It was kind of eerie.
And then it started to SNOW!!!
And I started to freak out
After the hike we reached the entrance to Homer Tunnel, which went downhill through the mountainside.
The last stop we made before reaching Milford Sound
Upon reaching Milford Sound, we did not even think about checking into the hostel, instead we went right to the beach inside the sound to take the following pictures. We'd finally gotten to what felt like the highlight of the trip. The next morning we would be on a boat headed out into the Tasman Sea.
The tide was out.
One of the bigger waterfalls in Milford
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