This one is extremely image heavy. No big surprise there, I grant you, but you’ve been warned.
It was amazing, but also a long day, and I think a chunk of the passengers fell asleep on the way back; I know I nodded off a few times.
Fairly early start, and I was initially worried that I’d underestimated the weather, based on the gear a bunch of other people had. Turns out it was OK, and I didn’t need a rain layer or extra warm layers for a trip that was almost all enclosed vehicles.
Something I’d not entirely realised is that the trip there was a tour, so there was bus driver commentary along the way, and a bit of a reshuffle at Te Anau to fill all the seats, so I lost my window seat at that point.
It’s tricky trying to capture scenery on a phone camera, …
Eglinton Valley
There’s snow on various of the mountains, and you can see it in some of the pictures, but the big peaks tend to blend into the clouds.
That long pale streak down the mountain is the remains of a Tree Avalanche. There’s only a thin layer of soil there, painstakingly built up over 150 years from lichen & moss, through small plants, all the way to trees, so when something loses it’s grip, it takes out everything downslope as it goes.
Mirror Lakes
As advertised, they’re pretty reflective.
The area was full of buses, and their passengers. Mirror Lakes especially, but I think they kind of bunch up there? Eglinton Valley had enough room to space them out, and the next place was oddly not crowded, possibly because the drivers were doing some timing management.
This sign made me think “if you want to meet a Takahē, sit down somewhere with a sandwich, don’t pay attention, and wait for them to come running through at high speed to steal it”.
Monkey Creek
I’d heard Kea before, in Arthur’s Pass, and seen the shadow of them at dusk, but this was the first time I’d seen them just sort of mooching around. Or in this case, hoping for snacks and possibly looking for a chance to steal the bus.
This is the glacier-fed creek in question, and yes, the water was very cold indeed.
Yeah, that Not Feeding The Kea thing didn’t happen. The fact that they specifically followed the driver says a lot about where the snacks come from.
A Steep Narrow One-Way Tunnel
Milford Sound, Which Is A Fiord
There’s not really a way to describe this in anything other than “look at the pictures”. The mountains loom over the boats, which all seem to do the same route at a distance from each other.
There’s overnight trips though, which must be interesting.
Back Through That Tunnel
Took a picture inside it this time.
