We woke up to a beautiful view of the mountains, with a dusting of snow overnight!

What a view from our hotel room!

We had enough time to breakfast at the buffet before our pick-up at 9:30am. We picked up a full load of hikers, 12 for this trip, that starts with a helicopter ride up to Luxemore Hut on the Kepler Track! We were driven to the helicopter pad just out of town and Robert volunteered us to ride in the small 4 person copter, us, one guide and the pilot and we took off over Lake Te Anau and up to the Hut!

Flying over the alpine glacially carved lakes.

The Other 10 hikers and one more guide were flown over in two trips on a larger helicopter.

A stop motion panorama of the 2nd copter taking off to return to Te Anau.

From the Hut we all started hiking up towards Mount Luxemore Peak, through the alpine tussock environment. We were glad for the clouds, but it was pretty cold and the dusting of snow was slowly melting.

The views across the long arm of Lake Te Anau to the Murchison Mountains was fantastic!

We reached the turning point, a big rock at the edge of the trail from which you can get a photo of yourself with a view of the Southern Alps in all their snow dusted beauty in the background, a view which was completely obstructed by clouds today! We backtracked down the trail towards the Hut and had another brief encounter with a lone Kea who we observed snatching something from some hikers who were lunching on the trail.

It is highly discouraged to feed the Kea and our guide reprimanded the hikers for allowing the bird to get close to an open container!

We reached the Hut and had another wonderful lunch and a much appreciated hot beverage! After warming up and filling up we started down the trail as the sun finally began burning off the clouds.

We reached tree line and entered the beech forest, thankful for the shade as the sun was high and getting hot!

The 4.5 miles downhill through the lush, moss-enveloped forest with thick fern undergrowth went quickly and we reached Brod Bay on Lake Te Anau. The water taxi was waiting for us and we got a quick photo.

What’s wrong with this picture?

We landed at the dock just a block from our hotel so we said goodbye to our guides and fellow hikers and walked home to celebrate the conclusion of our 3 days, 19.5 miles total, excursions on a few of The Great Walks of NZ!

Part 1; Water, Water, Everywhere!

A very early rainy morning, starting with a cold boxed breakfast delivered by the hotel last night. We met our guide at 6:30am in the lobby, the same guide today, but different guests that we picked up soon after. Our guide drove for 2 hours this morning along the same road as yesterday, but all the way to Milford Sound.

We stopped at the entrance to Homer Tunnel which is one-way now because of the sizes of tourist buses and camper vans. We had to wait a few minutes for the opposing traffic to exit the tunnel which gave us time to snap some photos of the ephemeral waterfalls, many of which run only in the rain!

We arrived at 8:30am to an empty parking lot at the tiny Village of Milford Sound, home to about 120 people, most of who work in the tourist industry and are temporary residents. We gathered our belongings and donned the offered rain pants and rain jackets since it was still raining! We caught a water taxi that jetted us across Freshwater Basin and up the entrance to the Arthur River to a small landing that is the start (or end) of the oldest of Nz’s Great Walks, Milford Track. We started our hike following the Arthur River and crossing several creeks, over bridges and wading ankle deep through them!

Sometimes the track looked like this!

We were warned by the guide company to bring a change of clothes and shoes!

The rainforest is lush owing to between 15.5″ to almost 24″ of rain per month, yet temperatures range from about 35F in winter to only 67F in summer.

There were waterfalls everywhere we looked, cascading down the granite cliffs. Notice the two hikers at the bottom center, giving scale to the size of the waterfalls!

Our destination at the 3 mile mark was Giants Gate waterfall, best seen from the swing bridge crossing the river.

We had our lunch at the shelter just past the bridge, along with a hot beverage again!

Part 2; Cruising the Sound

We backtracked on the same trail as the weather began to clear. We reached the water taxi landing in time to catch the boat back to the village.

As we crossed Freshwater Basin we got a view of Bowen Falls, the highest and most powerful waterfall in Milford Sound. It is both the water source and electricity source to Milford Sound Village via a hydropower station.

At the village we changed into our dry clothes (and shoes, in my case jandals {flip-flops}!).We had just enough time to board a larger boat for a cruise on Milford Sound!

More waterfalls in the more narrow and short fiord than Doubtful Sound.

As we neared the entrance to the sound on the Tasman Sea the sun was shining and the rough waves through the narrows calmed to a roll.

The water turned a beautiful teal color as we passed an area with lighter colored rocks flowing down to a small beach.

This area was mentioned by the skipper as a site of particularly rare and translucent Pounamu, or greenstone, also know as jade. Highly prized by Maori and carved into weapons as well as jewelry, it is a Kiwi tradition to wear and gift Pounamu.

We reached the Tasman Sea and the boat turned back at St. Anne Point, the rounded rock at the point.

Returning to the Village the sun was shining to round out a wonderful day.

Part 3; Icing on the Cake!

On our drive back towards Te Anau our guide spotted activity in a parking lot and we turned around to check it out. It was a group of 3 Kea, the iconic alpine parrot of NZ!

A 6 mile hike, a 2 hour cruise, 4 hours being driven through beautiful landscape, meeting the curious, intelligent iconic Kea up close, all in the company of my best friend and husband! A great day!

Today started our 3 day hiking experience with Trips & Tramps based in Te Anau, South Island. We opted for the “Fiordland Great Walk 3-Day Package” encompassing parts of 3 of the currently 10 Great Walks of NZ. I guess we’ll just have to come back to do parts of the 7 other tracks! We woke to a misty, foggy morning with looming clouds. After the hotel buffet breakfast we met our guide in the lobby at 8am for a briefing about the 3 hikes ahead of us. Today is the Routeburn Track, just a tiny section of the 2-3 day, 20.5 mile route. We climbed into the Trips & Tramps van and proceeded to pick up several more hikers at 2 other locations around town. We drove the 1 hour along the Milford Road to our starting point, stopping at viewpoints (and a coffee cart) on the way.

Mirror Lakes reflected only the cloudy sky, but it wasn’t raining!

As we hiked through the beech forest interspersed with flowering lacebark and huge papery-barked fuschia trees we were lucky to spot a pair of Keruru (NZ huge pigeons) and a parrot pulling moss off a tree looking for bugs. It might be a Kaka parrot, but this is the habitat for Kea! We also passed a few waterfalls.

As we climbed a gradual incline we got some glimpses of snow dappled mountain tops through the shifting mists.

As we approached the summit, the terrain leveled out and we encountered alpine tarns, ponds or lakes excavated by glaciers.

A beautiful metal marker at the summit identifies the surrounding mountains and describes the 3 directions of water that flows from this spot, one south to the Great Southern Ocean, one west to the Tasman Sea and one east to the Pacific!

As we ate our lunch at the summit the wind blew off most of the remaining mist and clouds and we had wonderful views of the mountains!

Looking down on little Lake Marian in the hanging valley across from Key Summit.

Looking down to Hollyford Valley, the river route to the west.

A last view of the peaks as we descended through the moss and lichen draped beech forest.

We hiked 5 miles total over a 4.5 hour time period, stopping for picture taking, watching birds, informative information from our guide, and eating the delicious lunch provided, along with a hot drink too! The drive back to Te Anau had a few more sightseeing stops.

A stop at Gunn Lake where we have some mountain reflection, and Eglinton Valley, a scenic spot along Milford Road.

A great day of hiking in improving weather and a good start to our 3 days of hiking!

Our last long-view sunrise in Riverton! A good day to travel!

We had packed up most of our stuff last night, so we didn’t have too much to do except cleaning up the Cosy Cute Hut. Of course I had to do some window cleaning, only the front glass door that had nose prints from a previous dog guest! Robert had the toughest job of cleaning out the vacuum cleaner, for some reason every place we’ve been had a stuffed vacuum cleaner that needed cleaning out or a new bag before we could use it!

We chose a more inland route, with the Southern Alps on our left, and drove 2 hours, passing the turnoff to Manapouri where we were just yesterday.

We arrived at Te Anau on Lake Te Anau, the 2nd largest NZ lake, and the deepest. We’re staying at a hotel for 4 nights for a package 3 day tour of hiking each day on one of the many world famous tracks in and around the Southern Alps!

I think the room is bigger than the hut we were in for the last week! There’s a great view of the mountains, screened a bit by the trees.

We took a short walk around town in the heat of the day and got dinner at the hotel cafe. We need a good nights sleep for our hiking adventure tomorrow!

We woke to the sound of a helicopter early this morning, before sunrise! We never saw it though, it was gone, along with some tanks of lobster we assume. The guests bunking in the large berth on the top deck with windows encircling their room did get to see it, then went back to sleep. Robert and I were the first up and got the first cups of coffee to warm up in the chilly morning.

A beautiful sunrise on the misty fiord.

We motored away from the little protected harbor into the wider sound while the chef cooked us up a huge breakfast!

The sun began burning off the mist and clouds revealing the ancient native podocarp forest clinging to the slopes, sprinkled with stands of bright green tree ferns at the lower elevations.

After breakfast I peeked into the wheelhouse while the skipper was having his breakfast. They offered a tour of the engine room as well, but no one took them up on it.

As we motored into one of the arms of the Sound it looked like the weather inland was a little more murky!

Occasionally the mountain walls would open with a glacial carved valley and a pebbly beach, probably depositing the water of creeks and rivers to the sea.

At one long-drop waterfall the skipper pulled us up right under it for a ‘bow wash’, and anyone could have a shower! The mate even came out with a scrub broom and scrubbed off the wheel house windows!

As we approached Deep Cove to dock the boat we passed another cruise heading out into the Sound. I don’t think they ever actually unfurl the sails on that tour boat!

The canyon wall shows the scar of a ‘tree avalanche’ – after heavy rain the shallow tree roots cannot keep their hold and slough off, taking their neighbors below them into the water! We saw lots of sticks and debris floating throughout the Sound.

We gathered our gear and the chilly bin and reluctantly bade goodbye to Arturo the chef and Fraser the mate who stayed behind to clean and prep the boat for the next cruise guests arriving on the ferry we were to catch back to Manapouri. Dave drove us back over the pass to catch the ferry and meet the next skipper, taking over as Dave had a few days off!

As we motored over Lake Manapouri we exchanged emails with our fellow passengers and enjoyed the scenery, noticing the scar on the mountains, maybe a fault line*?

We disembarked the ferry and got the car from the overnight parking area and headed the almost 2 hours back to Riverton in time to make a hodge-podge dinner of leftovers because we are on the move again tomorrow! Leaving with great memories of a trip of a lifetime!

*Addendum; Several fault lines run along the southern Alps and geologists believe that NZ is due for a ‘big one’ that occurs about every  300 years! More info HERE and a fault line map is HERE!