Te Anua is a relaxing place to be after all the excitement of Queenstown. My leg was healing, and we were thinking of either doing the Milford Track or some other. Ideally, we wanted to do the Milford Track. Described in National Geographic as the best walk on the planet, or something similar, and reckoned to be a rite of passage for most New Zealanders, it was obvious that we shoud at least give it a go.
The weather hadnt been particularly kind lately and it was becoming a wet blanket on a lot of activities. The plan to do the Milford Track became its latest victim. Due to the season, many of the bridges had been removed and the DOC huts were without gas. That wasnt our main concern, due the greater inconvenience of the avalanche risk in the area. I guess we could have ignored them and goen ahead anyway, but maybe its best to wait for when the weather is good.
Instead we plumped to do part of the Kepler Track. Again, once into the mountains, the avalanche risk becomes to great to proceed further, so we contented ourselves with the trip up to the first hut. This could be done in a day, there and back if you have a light load, but we wanted to spend one night away from the village. Its cheaper for one, and I like the outdoors living.
Its a long slog up the hill, tramping through an ever changing forest scenery, catching glimpses of the view as we climb. The lunch stop at the Bluffs took longer than I thought and I think Cathy was getting bored of my comments like, "Its just around the next corner", and "Its can only be another one or two hundred metres". After another hour we reached the Bluff and had lunch. It was about 3 o'clock and we started thinking that we should have really got up earlier.
Another hour or so through different forest and we reached the tree line. Its hardly surprising, but as you climb the vegetation changes. From almost rainforest to fern-filled forest to a pine mix, without ferns at all. Then the grass and moss scrub of alpine country. The scenery opens out in front of you and you see the harshly glacier-sculptured landscape of fjordland in all its rough glory. There isnt anybody about, no electricity, no mobile phone masts, pylons, rubbish, noise except the wind.
Another 45 minutes and we made the hut, got comfy and had a cup of tea. There was a Danish guy at the hut as well, but considering the hut can sleep 50 or more, it was deserted. While we were cooking dinner, some strange calls were heard, and a shadow moved in the moonlight on the decking outside. We opened a window and had a nice meeting with a Kea. These alpine parrots, the only alpine parrots in the world, are supposedly very intelligent. I dont know about intelligent, but they are inquisitive.
I went to fill up my water bottle and one was waiting for me outside. I placed the metal water bottle on the ground and as it 'tinged' the parrot came up and had a nose around. It tried carrying the bottle away, and kept tapping the bottle to make it ring. Like the dolphins, hanging around with intelligent creatures is maybe not spiritual but certainly entertaining. Seeing as the cold was getting to everyone, I lit a roaring inferno of a fire. Greatly appreciated by everyone I think you'll find, including the Kea.
The wind picked up that night, so much so that we could feel the hut move. I think the Kea got blown away in the night. By morning we were depressed as the weather had closed in and the wind was just as bad. A lie in 'till 12 meant we could at least give it a chance to improve, which it did, so we finished our breakfast/lunch/loafing and legged it back down the hill. This was after exploring the Luxmore caves, where we found amazing artifacts from early mans history. Probably.
The rain soon came back and we got back to the hostel, Te Anau Backpackers in town, had some food and very quickly went to sleep.
The next morning saw us stiff and tired, but realising we had to rush a little bit as Cathy was starting to run out of time. I hired some snow chains, filled up and drove to Milford Sound. Along the road were some fascinating places, such as 10 mile bush, flat knob creek and kiosk river. We got to Milford Sound and decided to hop on one of the boat trips. It was the perfect time to see Milford as while the weather was bad, the waterfalls were everywhere, making it all very picturesque. We stopped off at the marine reserve on the way back which was interesting. Due to the huge amounts of freshwater coming into the Sound, deep sea animals come to the surface as they are tricked by the visibility.
After thinking about staying the night in Milford and realising it might not be worth it, we drove back to Te Anau and then onwards to Queenstown. We have to pass this way to see the west coast.
Since the Southern Laughter hostel was a no-no, Cathy did the books and went for Hippo Lodge. Now THIS was a nice place. Spacious clean kitchen, clean towels on the bed, with a little chocolate hippo on the towels. I met a Kiwi lady who was showing a Nepalese Sherpa the sights of New Zealand. The views over Queenstown were well worth the stay at Hippo lodge on its own, but I wish we had stayed here before instead of Southern Laughter.
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