January 1, 2012
We fell asleep quite
early on New Year's Eve, but around 9pm we were woken up by the park
ranger. Ryan had insisted that we could
pay in the morning because no one would be checking, so he was the one who had
to get up and pay the ranger. After that
we had a great night sleep and didn't get up until almost 9am.
We started our drive
to Milford Sound, but quickly realized that in our food crisis the night before
we had forgotten to get gas. We only had
1/3 of a tank left. The road to Milford
Sound is one way in and out, and doesn't have any towns or connecting roads, so
we made the reckless decision to continue on and hope that Milford Sound had a
gas station. We knew if we turned around
we wouldn't backtrack again, so we would miss out on Milford Sound
completely.
One stop along the
way was Mirror Lakes.
While we were there
(probably 80km from Milford Sound) we saw a sign saying that there was no gas
station in Milford Sound, so yet again we had to make a decision. The car gage estimated that we could make it,
but just to be sure we emptied the fuel from our stove and our jerry can into
the tank (much to the amusement of onlookers).
For the rest of the
trip there we cringed every time there was an uphill stretch or a slow car in
front of us.
Despite our lack of
confidence, we decided to stop at The Chasm.
It would appear I didn't actually take any pictures of it though. I guess I was preoccupied with this:
 |
| I swear, he asks me to take these pictures. |
Anyways, it wasn't
that exciting except that I backed into a little girl by accident with my butt
and got the WORST glare I've ever been given.
Also, Ryan took this opportunity to inform me that because he is a well-paid,
working professional, he raises my social status. Supposedly this is confirmed by the fact that
if it were up to me we would be living in a van and travelling around Australia
(Ryan: "You're welcome").
Hah! Who's the one who tells him
if his shirt is inside out? Enough said.
Other than the
stunning scenery, the last attraction on our way to Milford Sound was the
tunnel through a mountain. We should
have recorded how long it was, but my guess is over two kilometres, and it's
one way only. There is a 15 minute wait
while the other cars go through, and during that time we watched people get out
of their cars to play in the snow on the side of the road.
Eventually we
reached Milford Sound. The only thing I
can compare it to was our experience in Skagway, Alaska; the scenery was
beautiful but there were only cruise ships, a tourist building, and hundreds of
annoying tourists. Needless to say we
basically just used the bathrooms and left.
I'm sure the cruises were nice, but we had already been on an intimate
kayak trip through the fiords and had no desire to ruin that memory.
We still hadn't had
lunch, so we decided to stop next to a nice waterfall and have a picnic.
We both really
wanted to get closer to the waterfall, so we walked a little ways up the side
of a mountain to get to it.
My underwater camera
paid for itself that day. We took a few
quick snap photo sequences (think action heroes in Germany), ending up with
this little gem. I think you can fill in
the before and after, knowing us.
We both agreed that
our waterfall picnic was for sure the highlight of the day, but also in the
running for the highlight of the trip.
The water was freezing cold, but it was an amazing place. I'm not sure how many park rules we were
violating, but we prefer not to dwell on that.
The rest of the
drive back to Te Anau was tense, since we still weren't sure if we had enough
gas to make it. Long story short, we did
make it but based on our calculations at the gas station we only had 4 litres
of gas left in the tank! Phew! Crisis averted!
We continued half an
hour further to the Mossburn Country Park, which was our campsite for the
night. It also had a kitchen and
showers, but more interestingly it also had lots of random animals wandering around (think peacocks, chickens, alpacas, etc.). It still had some rustic charm, and best of
all there were no flies! We toasted to
an excellent day and a happy New Year (wine: Sauvignon Blanc, Stonleigh,
Marlborough, 2011 - yum!)
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