The drive from Wanaka to Te Anau via Crown Range road was pretty quick. Some tricky sharp turns to maneuver but otherwise it was a journey filled with magnificent views. This route goes past a ski resort, and I can just imagine driving past the snow-capped mountains and being constantly distracted by the beauty of this place.
We had been warned at the i-site at Wanaka that the drive to Te Anau would take longer than expected due to detours from the flooding. So yes, instead of highway 94 all the way, we had to split to highway 95, go through the town of XXX to reach Te Anau. And it didn't help that highway 94 & 95 were pretty boring as we had to go though acres and acres of farmland.
Te Anau is a very small town. Turn right, turn left and you're back to where you started. From here, we booked our Milford Sound Cruise for the next day.
We started out really early to head to Milford Sound. From our web research, it was informed that it would take at least 2.5 hours to get to Milford, our host told us 2. We were kiasu and as we have heard how dangerous the road to Milford is, (despite Ken-li assuring us that's totally untrue!) we decided to play safe and start out at 7.30am to be in time for the check in 20 mins before our 11am cruise.
It was raining heavily, vision was not very good and we drove safe, well within the speed limits. And it was to our shock that we reached Milford at 9am, only 1.5 hours. We could attribute it to light traffic because firstly, we set off early and secondly, it was raining. Perhaps, summer would be a totally different story.
The scenery to Milford was stunning with gushing waterfalls fueled with more angst due to the pouring rain. The cruise itself was good, though I would think it's comparable to the River Li in Guilin. It was pity that because of the incoming storm we had to turn back before reaching the narrow gateway that connects Milford Sound to the open sea.
Photos are here for you to enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment