The weather this morning in Milford Sound, one of the world’s rainiest places, was picture perfect. Blue sky, barely a cloud anywhere to be seen. I’m not sure what awesome things I did in a past life, but karma is obviously paying off big time. After checking out of the lodge I went down to the harbor one last time to enjoy the sun on Mitre Peak; I don’t know if I’ll ever be back here, but if not I want that memory to stick around for as long as possible.
From there I started up the Milford Road towards Te Anau, with plans to do some hiking. A few of the trails along the way were rumored to turn to utter muck after rains, so I ended up skipping them and choosing the road’s most popular trail, which follows a section of the Routeburn Track up to Keys Summit. Amusingly the sign at the trailhead warned that “snow can occur anytime on this trail, even at Christmas“; Bing Crosby probably had one less hit song in the southern hemisphere.
The full Routeburn Track is a multiday trail through the mountains, but the section to Keys Summit is a three hour round trip through lush rainforest and up to a summit with 360 degree views of the mountains. I arrived early enough that there was barely anyone else on the trail, got to the top with views of snow-covered peaks all around, and may or may not have done a Sound of Music twirl in celebration.
After returning from the trail it was a scenic drive back to Te Anau, which at two hours driving distance is the nearest town to Milford that has any services. While there was a restaurant at the Milford Lodge, I skipped it since the food was pricey and not anything I was excited about, so meals for the past three days have been mainly trail mix and a falafel sandwich during the scuba trip. Arriving back in town, I wanted something that was neither nut nor falafel, and thus ended up ordering a steak sandwich at a busy cafe. The six inch tall sandwich that arrived had an actual steak in it, wedged between two pieces of homemade ciabatta bread, with a fried egg thrown on for good measure, and, like a few other meals on this trip, it is very important that my doctor does not hear about it before my next cholesterol test.
Long ago the plan for tonight was to stay in Wanaka, but this weekend it seems like half of New Zealand is descending on that town for the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow, with lodging having been booked months in advance, so instead of Wanaka I’m 55 kilometers south in the old mining town of Arrowtown. It’s unexpectedly pretty here, with trees everywhere changing color for fall, so it might have actually been a fortunate accident that Kiwis are apparently airshow fanatics.
