Scenic drive to and from Milford Sound

What a long day - at 7:20 am the bus from Queenstown to Milford Sound started, at about 8:30 pm we were back in Queenie. The air-line distance is not even one hundred kilometers, but because of the mountains and the respective roads going to Milford Sound from Queenstown is a more than 300 km one-way drive. It was raining quite heavily when we left Queenstown. The bus driver, Paulie, was really cool. You could feel, that he loves his job and the nature of Fjordland National Park, which Milford is a part of. He told us so many stories and information about the area we were driving through. In the beginning he was talking for more than one hour without any break. It was super interesting what he was saying, but, since I had slept not very well once again, I just wished he would stop talking for a while😄We had a refreshment stop in Te Anau. I used the opportunity to have a quick look around the main street as well as the lake. After Te Anau the road to Milford got really scenic. The Fjordland National Park is really beautiful. I would have loved to be able walk around, but the view from the bus was better than nothing🙃Nevertheless, it was raining again. At the moment, the Milford Road is only open to touristic busses. About a month ago, there were a big thunderstorm and floodings that destroyed some parts of the road. The busses need to go in a convoy through the most destroyed area. The convoy starts at 12:00 pm. Paulie wanted to be in the back of the convoy because our cruiseship at Milford was the last one to be boarded. So, we very cruising relatively slowly and could enjoy the landscape. After we were released from the convoy we made an additional photo stop. Whereas most of the people were mainly interested in the river and the bridge, I also had a glimpse in to the forest, which is supposed to be a rainforest. The area around Milford gets the most rain in whole New Zealand. When we arrived at Milford, I hoped that some keas where there. Well, no luck, no keas... At about 1:30 pm, we boarded the cruise ship...Read more