Te Anau and Milford Sound

Te Anau is a pretty lake side town. We refueled and restocked here and Rosie enjoyed playing in the play parks. Poppy did too - there was a double swing, so she sat on the baby swing and Matt sat on the swing opposite her. I have never heard her giggle so much! And I think it's the first time either of us have heard her giggle without her being tickled!
We left Te Anau early this morning to do the 2hr drive up to Milford Sound. The mountains surrounding us on the drive up were beautiful. And even more spectacular once you enter the national park. Homer Tunnel was also very impressive. A long rough edged tunnel, which headed downwards through a huge mountain. The road from there wound down the valley, with staggering mountains either side, and crossing bright rivers with boulders and crashing waterfalls.
Milford Sound itself was the first part of the drive that felt busy. Lots of other campers there already and large boats lined up to take people out on the cruises. However once we were out on the water it felt like our boat was the only one there. Everything looks incredibly small next to the huge mountains surrounding Milford Sound (which we learnt is actually a fiord). People and even the odd helicopter we saw looked absolutely tiny!
Poppy was charming everyone on the boat with her smiles. She did look very cute peeping out of Matt's coat.
The boat took us through Milford Sound, right up to the Tasman Sea and back. We stopped to admire huge waterfalls on the way and even had some bottlenose dolphins join us for a while. It was awesome to watch them playing in the boat's wake, which made Rosie squeal with excitement.
Our trip included a visit to the underwater observatory, which was really interesting. We descended 10m below water to view some of the marine life living in the sound. It was cool to see 'spotties' (a common NZ fish) swimming about and also the huge triangular horse mussels.
Arriving back at shore we headed off to find a campsite for the night. As the girls woke up from their naps sooner than we expected, we stopped at Cascade Creek campsite. Luckily it's a beautiful campsite with mountain views, a red beech forest walk and a crystal clear river running alongside. I found being greeted by lots of sandflies very off-putting when we arrived but they soon disappeared.
I took Poppy for a walk and nap, whilst Matt and Rosie made a fire. Rosie was so pleased to be able to get a fire going and was happily collecting wood and proudly telling me how to make a fire when I got back. Smoked salmon wraps for dinner, had to of course be followed by baked chocolate bananas on the fire.Read more