Lake Manapouri, Te Anau & Milford Sound

Lake manapouri

From Lake Hauroko we drove through to Te Anau stopping at Lake Manapouri enroute to admire the beauty of the lake in the continuing bright sunshine and have a walk along a bushy track on the lake edge from Pearl Harbour to Frasers Beach. There were lots of parked vehicles about but hardly a soul to be seen as they were probably all out on the Doubtful Sound cruise which we really enjoyed last time we were here.
On arriving in Te Anau we booked a bus and boat trip to Milford Sound for the next morning (Friday) with Jucy who had, just that morning, put out a special deal of half price for the second person which made it only $178 for both of us and included a small lunch and tea and coffee. Jucy, who combine with Eco Tours, has small buses (same size as ours, seating 20) and a small boat which we were all happy with as it somehow makes the trip more friendly and the boat can nudge in closer to the waterfalls (wet passengers!) and seals. The bus driver gave us good information and we stopped at lots of good scenic spots such as the Mirror Lakes, the Chasm, the river we spotted trout in and Lake Gunn on the way up and back - 2.5 hours of driving each way and Len was very pleased to have a day off on the windy road which was so busy with tourists and buses.

T with lunch! (Mitre Peak behind)

The scenery of course is awesome with the towering ice-capped peaks, silver, red and mountain beech trees and underlying ferns.

No, it's not upside down!

It was great to actually see Mitre Peak, across the lake, in reality instead of just in a picture. Compared with our memories of Doubtful Sound we were a little disappointed with Milford which may be partly to do with the time of the year. With it now being February and relatively dry over the last couple of weeks there wasn't the cascading water that you would normally see all through the Sounds after rain although there are 3 permanent waterfalls in Milford. And it was yet another sunny day for us - we almost felt it would be good to see it in the rain! We visited Doubtful Sound about 10 years ago in November and also recall seeing a lot more marine and birdlife there. Milford Sound had a good number of basking fur seals which we were able to get really close up to but that was all yesterday.

Which is the wight way in Te Anau?

I think we have already been spoilt by what we have seen around the Southern Coast and on Stewart Island. However we really enjoyed the day and it is nice to now know what all the tourists are seeing.
We have stayed for 2 nights in the Te Anau Kiwi Holiday Park right in town as there are few free camping areas close in - lots of good DOC sites on the road up to Milford though.
Te Anau is a pretty place and on Thursday evening we walked along the lakeside path to the promoted Wildlife Park which we thought was pretty disappointing. It is home for some native birds and, again, we just feel so sad for these few caged creatures who seem to lose a lot of their beauty in their confinement being unable to really spread their wings. Stewart and Ulva Island are the best places to see them!
Today, Saturday, we are going to do a return walk on the first section of the Kepler Track. It's cloudy and windy at the moment and we need to start moving!