To Milford Sound and back
We're on a road to nowhere....
We try to get up as early as possible to beat the crowds that will be visiting Milford Sound today. We fail. When we arrive at Milford Sound, busloads of tourists are already there, as well as helicopters, boats, and lots of other noisy things. We leave immediately, as the road to (and from) Milford Sound is as beautiful as the fiord - see the photos, they speak for themselves. Don't get me wrong, Milford Sound is stunning, but the crowds, the helicopters, the cruise ships, it's so out of place there. The noise spoils it. Anyways, we'll get our fair share of fiordland wilderness in the next few days.
We make lots of stops along the way to enjoy the environment. One of those stops is at the start of a track called "Talbot's Grave", near a mountain called "Mount Isolation". It certainly sounds very promising, so we grab our tramping shoes, some biscuits and water and start tramping. It's a beautiful walk, but there's hardly a recognisable track, just red triangles attached to trees every now and then. After an hour or so it gets increasingly difficult to find the triangles in front of us, but also behind us - the ones that mark our way back... Even though it's all very exiting and really beautiful, we're less enthousiastic about the idea of getting lost, so we decide to go back.
We want to be back at Te Anau at five, because we have a meeting with Daphne from Fiordland Wilderness Experiences. We decided to join a two day kayaking trip through Doubtful Sound. After our briefing, we go to the nearest holiday park - we have to be at the kayak office at six in the morning.
