Day 71 – Rain rain go away

First hint of rain we’ve had in New Zealand came this morning but soon cleared as we left Queenstown. By the time we reached Te Anau it had started again with a vengeance.

The view on the stretch or road to Milford Sound was dark and gray. Mountains appeared like gloomy shadows behind the veil of low cloud. It stayed like this for most of the way until we got within 10k of Milford. Now the mountains became more visible and created a view like nothing I’ve ever seen. The mountains were shedding so much water that waterfalls streamed down both sides of the valley every few meters. Hundreds of waterfalls gave the appearance of a weeping valley. As the road climbed snow on the mountains added to the spectacle.

You arrive into Milford via a 1k tunnel that descends steeply from the mountain pass. We found our accommodation, the only accommodation, The Milford Lodge on the outskirts of town. With the relentless downpour hampering any activities we thought we’d drive into town. It soon became apparent that there is no town. Just car parks and a cruise boat terminal. The only place to purchase food was back at the Lodge. Considering they have a monopoly their prices were pretty good.

The time came and a guy from the kayak tour to tell us the trip was cancelled. Gutted! We sat around for an hour or so and after reading the weather report for tomorrow we decided to give up on Milford and hit the road. as we were about to leave the weather lifted enough for us to get a few pictures of the sound from near the docks. Driving back to Te Anau the clouds had lifted slightly giving us even better views of the waterfalls.

Entering Te Anau we spied the American couple we keep bumping into and stopped to say hello. They were staying at the YHA where they had space in a dorm for us. We debated what to do the next day as the weather looks iffy and the Doubtful Sound tours were expensive. In the end I decided to go for a run to clear my head after all the driving. The route I took followed the shore line of the lake and I got a great view of the setting sun over the mountains.

Spent the evening playing cards with out room mates, a lovely group from the Isle of Wight, playing cards and drinking beer in the dorm.