Milford Sound is actually very close to Queenstown on a straight line - directly northwest. However, there is no road through the mountains, which is why we need to do a U-shaped 4-hour drive south, west, then back north. However, the beautiful Milford Highway out of Te Anau is a tourist attraction itself. The tour bus made many stops along the way so we could get off to admire the scenery.
The first stop is Eglinton Valley.
Next stop is Mirror Lakes, which reflects almost perfectly the Earl Mountains in the background.
A wooden walkway leads down from the main road and is big enough to accomodate several bus-loads of passengers.
Knobs Flat is just over 60km from Te Anau and has a wide, flat plain to admire the mountains in a different way.
With no snow or ice on the roads and beautiful weather, I was very surprised when the driver told us we had to turn back because of a tree avalanche in Milford and buses could no longer make it through. He offered to go to Monkey Creek as long as the majority of the passengers agreed, which was as far as the bus could travel. This was the last and probably the most beautiful stop of the day.
The previous night's snow came timely.
I finally spotted a kea, an endangered bird that lives in alpine environments on the South Island. They are the only alpine parrot species in the world and are very curious. DO NOT feed it!
So now we go back to Queenstown.
