Day 34

Morning, no one disturb apart from the rain. After a quick toilet and sandwich stop at Garston, we visited the honey and antique shop and had some yummy tasting. I started to drive away to Te Anau and stopped to jump on two swing bridges on the road side. At five rivers town, we explored a funny shop full of stuffs where Jack wanted to buy me a mood ring. We got lots of pamphlets for Milford sound. We were still unsure if it was worth the drive from Te Anau. On the way we has a look at the scientific wilderness reserve. No one was stopping there, but it was interesting. We learned that the bogpine shrub takes a hundred years to grow a meter! A yellow moss was also covering all the ground. Arriving at Te Anau, we went to the i-site and to DOC. Lots of walks up to Milford sound! But such a fair way… We got some lunch and shopping from a fish and chip shop and then went to have a look at a bird center. The little green parrots were cute and cheeky, wile some Kaka were sleeping and we saw ducklings and a sleeping owl and the rare Pukeko blue bird. It was a pleasant walk and Jack donated a few gold coins for this center, helping an protecting wild birds. Jack liked the pyramid cage a lot. Parked near the center, we got some fresh water and worked out our walks going to Milford Sound. The lady from the zoological garden yesterday really recommended us that place to see. Going back to DOC, we bought a map and asked for caves.

We charged Sue with a full tank of fuel and I kept driving, 192km to go and around 2h30. The rain caught us finally as we went further west. Our first stop, Lake Mistletoe, we kept running the all way to avoid those nasty clouds full of rain heading toward us! The road wasn’t too bad but I was surprised to see that many cars, buses, vans, mini buses and camper vans on the road despite the weather getting bad. At mirror lakes there was no reflection that day, only little ducklings speeding like crazy on the water. Very cute! At cascade falls, we could avoid the rain a little under a green and deformed trees. We finally drove to the divide car park and decided to have an early dinner here as the rain kept falling and the wind picked up. We cooked our pasta inside the change room we saw to avoid the strong wind. In the mean time, a painted van rocked up with five young guys in it. Two of them (from Netherlands and France) were chatting to us while cooking their big meal. We shared our NZ trips as they were coming from Christchurch. It was nice to have some company for a change. We cleaned up as more people arrived to eat here or use the loo. Packed up, we drove back to a closed camping site and then headed to the last DOC campsite. Plenty of people were sleeping here, it wasn’t very cheap but it was the best option as the DOC car was driving around checking everyone’s tickets.

Entree Written By Marianne