Milford Sound

We arrived around dusk in Milford Sound National Park. We had talked to Sophia who had just come from there and had been told there was somewhere we could sleep for free. The DOC sites were only $5 which was much improved than other campsites we had seen but tried for the Hollyford campsite area instead. We stopped at this museum before the Hollyford hike to get an idea of where we were. The campsites there were $10 bucks and we just wanted to sleep in our car. We found out that at the end of the road there was a carpark where you technically aren't supposed to camp, but really who was going to go out there. While in the museum I saw a kid wearing a University of Hawaii shirt. Being my father's daughter, I started talking to him and found out he had "studied abroad" there for a semester. The group of guys were actually from the east coast and were studying abroad at Victoria University in Wellington. Then we left for the carpark.

I don't think I have ever been somewhere so dark and creepy in my entire life. We drove in passing dead man's creek and hangman's drop and it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I never considered myself scared of the dark but that was really scary. We were also concerned about getting caught sleeping where we weren't supposed to so in the early morning when we saw headlights, I tensed up. But we awoke with no problems and the sun shining. We decided to finally use the stove we bought and made eggs on toast. We then decided to do the short hike to see the waterfalls before doing part of the Hollyford track. Arriving at the waterfall, we saw the same group of guys from the night before and hung out with them a bit before we headed back down.

From there we did 2 hours into the Hollyford Track. It's normally a 6 day in and out track but we didn't have that amount of time. It was a nice easy flat trail following a river with glaciers in site the whole time.

Once back at the car, we drove into Milford Sound to see about kayaking the sound the next day. We signed up for the afternoon kayak trip at the Milford Sound Lodge when they told us there was no where for us to sleep for free or cheap in the area. We then went back out of Milford, through this giant tunnel in the mountain before going to the nearest DOC campsite. While searching for the toilet, guess who we run into? The boys from the hike earlier had set up a campfire. We hung out with them for a while before going to sleep preparing for 4 hours of kayaking the next day.

The morning of the 11th, we drove 45 minutes back into Milford Sound, used the Lodge's kitchen for eggs on toast before finding out they canceled our kayaking trip because of bad weather. Lannette was really upset because this had been the part she was looking forward to the most. We decided to do an afternoon trip on the Ferry showing the Sound. While I think it would have been really cool to see the sound up close from the kayak, it was still amazing from the ferry. We saw the entire sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea and got up close and personal when he backed us into a waterfall. I even got to see dolphins. All the while, the rain was pouring down which meant we got drenched but also that there were trickling waterfalls down the lush mountain sides everywhere.

Once back on land again, we dried off in the only pub around and had a delicious dinner of tortelloni. Then we found the jenga blocks and played multiple rounds while the pub filled with grizzled boating types that looked at us like we were crazy sitting in a corner on the floor playing with blocks.

We then ran into the group of guys from the campsite again! I told them they were stalking us, then we headed for the lodge to use the internet, which convienantly was also where they were staying. Then it was time to find a campsite to sleep at for the night.

Here's a video of the waterfall the boat backed me in to. No zooming required.