Fiordland

Fiordland is in the south west of New Zealand's South Island and pretty much every guide, travel site or  Kiwi will tell you it's a highlight.

After the hamburger experience in Queensway, we drove to Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland. We arrived late in the evening and found ourselves a good and cosy camping in front of the lake. When we woke up the next morning, it was colder than usual and everything was covered in snow. Very beautiful but oh so uncomfortable when your house is a tiny camper van. We learned that the main road to the fiords had been closed due to a massive avalanche that night and there was no way we could go and explore the fiord of fiords: Milford Sound. At Milford Sound, steep cliffs are jutting out of dark water, with the most spectacular of all, Mitre Peak, rising vertically over more than 1600 meter.

More snow was expected in the coming days but we stayed optimistic and bought a ticket for a 'cruise' at Milford. But no luck the next morning, roads remained sealed off and we shuffled from the village's coffee house to the local library and back. Exactly what we did the day after that. And the day after. Traveling can be sooo exciting sometimes:-) Luckily we were able to transfer our boat tickets to the day the roads would open again. In the mean time we started to feel quite at home at Te Anau Lakeside Holiday Park, we occupied three fridge shelves, had our clothes drying in the lounge room and monopolized the tv remote control. We also made some friends but none of them stayed as long as us. Of course we were rewarded for our wait and got to see Milford Sound on a super cold but snow free day and even though a cruise isn't the ideal thing to do on a winter's day, it was a very rewarding boat trip.

A kea on the parking, looking for  tourists to feed him!

Milford Sound

Milford Sound: Mitre Peak

Milford Sound

Milford Sound