Day 35

We woke up with rain, went to the divide in the rain, had a toilet break and porridge for breakfast. Keeping driving wet, we went to Marian Falls. Sadly the track to the Lake Marian was too long and we would have been all wet after 1h. We decided to go to the other dead end road which was unsealed. We went to have a look at the Humboldt falls, a very long and strait fall. On our way back, we stopped to see the Gunns Camp and its museum. Lots of history in that little village lost in the middle of nowhere. They even had an old deactivated bomb from world war 2 (I think). The road was quite slippery with the mud and rain. On the way to Milford Sound, we stopped to admire the only falls running on the mountains and finally bumped into two wild keas. As expected, they were pretty cheeky and wet, looking for tourist’s food. We reached the Homer Tunnel, quite scary and impressive, going through the massive mountain. While we waited to go in that black hole, it started to snow and the wind picked up. We were a bit concerned to not have chains for the car as we drove slowly down the rocky tunnel. Arriving in a vast valley with four snowy tops, we stopped like everyone else on the first car park to take a picture.

More Keas were waiting for us there! Those two wanted to play and started to take the rubber of a red car. The poor guy tried to stop them while other tourists laughed at the show while taking shots of the wild birds. We eventually made it to Milford Sound as the rain restarted to fall heavily. We went to the information centre which had also a restaurant and bought an expensive hot chocolate to warm up. Between showers, we managed to have our veggie wrap for lunch. Then we did the three walk around the town: the lookout (but it was still cloudy), the board walk to see a big falls, and the walk to the cruises building (the other part was closed because of rock slides). A couple of Keas was also waiting on the Chasm walk car park. Walk was nice and gave us great views on powerful falls and curved rocks. The water had sculpted the rocks and we could see through holes, the water crashing on the rocks.

On our way back, Sue made it up hills, behind big busses and through slushy snow after the Homer Tunnel. Back at the divide we didn’t have much plans apart from trying to go to the hut before the Key Summit. We met some people on the way, all wet like us as the rain wouldn’t stop for a minute. We climbed up through the trees and little waterfalls running on the track. Half wet we made a quick stop near a warm hut but we weren’t allowed to use any of their facilities. We headed down and had to change most of our clothes as we were freezing with the wind. We managed to have a healthy and warm meal again in the change rooms. None of us could feel feet and hands so we went back quickly to our last camping site to have a sleep. I also got a new pair of boots as it seemed they were forgotten at the divide.

Entree Written By Marianne