Day 7 & 8 - The dramatic fiord lands of the Milford Sound and boat race with Dolphins!
 
We awoke to not a lot in sight except cloud and wondered if the 'Mountain Views' proclaimed by ours and every other accommodation was indeed a joke, not a mountain was in sight! After fun and games with an oil and water leak, we headed on our way on the Milford Road and what lay ahead of us was all in all a spectacular day! On leaving Te Anau and resigning ourselves to the fact that we would see none of the views so famous for this stretch of NZ, we finally started to see white snow peaks coming through the low cloud, and the further we went, it just got better!! It seemed so bizarre though to see green farming land at first and sheep with snowy mountains so close together in proximity, what a perfect life as a farmer to work the land in such a setting!
 
Heading further into the remoteness, the dramatic mountain scenery started to fully appear and we stopped at some amazing creeks to listen to the river and stand, just the two of us, amongst the vegetation completely surrounded by mountains .....it truly was a breath-taking drive; lakes with mountains mirrored within them, views across endless forests edged by staggering peaks, roaring waterfalls and deeply etched chasms, just amazing and we were definitely VERY lucky to get this weather especially in winter! What did seem so bizarre though was that despite this being the most remote part of NZ, we shared the road with endless other tour buses and camper vans, what happened to having NZ to ourselves!!! Boo!
 
Finally we reached the place I had been dreading, the small & compact 'Homer Tunnel' which enables the wilderness of the Milford to be viewed by the world. After much deliberation, Ads drove me through it down into the mountain and we finally came out the other end alive!! The impact of the mountains as we came out of the tunnel was just staggering as we slowly wound down deeper and deeper into the valley, taken aback by the dramatic and most impressive view around us, it really took your breath away...... Then we reached our destination, the famous Milford Sound and spectacular Mitre Peak, which to my surprise was set this time against a bright blue sky, a stark contrast to the eerie bleakness that I had kayaked within before! Again the view took our breath away, to see the sound in a sunny, clear day was just remarkable, especially as it rains 2 our of 3 days here! The day just got better as we set off on a cruise (thanks to P & B!) through the awe inspiring fiord lands out towards the Tasman Sea . Dramatic waterfalls fell miles into the sea off the mountains, some even had rainbows within them, it truly was a journey you don't forget! Reaching the Tasman Sea was pretty cool in itself too; to think that the sounds are only accessible by boat just made the journey even more spectacular! Then it just got even more breath-taking.... as we headed back into the sounds our captain said that he had heard there were a pod of dolphins just ahead of us! When we got closer, we saw about 10 or so blue nosed dolphins swimming and diving around, then 6 of them decided to have some fun with the boat and right in front of us, they dived and swam with the bow of the boat, playing with us, making noises, it was just out of this world!! The strength and size of them shocked both of us and it was so amazing to be so close to them as they darted, dived and raced the boat! Our captain then increased speed and they just raced us even more, we couldn't believe how fast they could move.... They must have been with us for well over 10 minutes and finally then dived back down towards the river bed and were gone . It definitely was a moment we will never forget and we felt incredibly lucky to have experienced this, WOW is all I can say, this trip just gets better and better everywhere we turn.....
 
By the time we got back to the jetty, the sun had started to set and we watched in awe as Mitre Peak fell slowly into darkness amongst a bright moonlit sky. So overwhelmed by the day, we decided to drive back to Cascade Creek where we had been on route and freedom camp amongst the mountains. We knew it would be bl***y cold but would just end the day perfectly! As we headed back through the dreaded tunnel, the sun finally set on the mountains and it was beautiful. We arrived at Cascade Creek, the only ones there and parked up in the dark by the river, had a coffee outside in the snow and went to bed knowing that the view we would wake up to would be JUST fantastic and it was!
 
We awoke to see the sun rising over the mountain peaks all around us amongst a hazy frost across the landscape, it was just picture perfect. It is hard to put in words how stunning south New Zealand is and only photos can really do justice of what we have experienced, if only we could wake up to this view everyday! The only bugger was that it was VERY cold and we woke up to find ice not on the outside of the van but the INSIDE, a thick layer across the windows!! After Ads improvised with using a wooden spatula to 'de-ice us', we then sampled a good ole British bacon sarnie and after an hour of trying to start the van, set off to hike part of the Routeburn Track .
 
The track to 'The summit' was wonderful, a hard and steep track up which as we puffed to the top, felt very embarrassed when we passed the local ranger who was not puffing at all, was carrying a heavy strimmer and this was also her SECOND ascent that morning!! On route up, the mountains were looming around us and the view across the river valley of the North and South divide was fantastic! At the top we had 360 degree views of the alpine glacial mountains all around us and fresh untouched powdered snow under our feet; the hike to the summit was definitely worth the climb!! The jagged stature of Mount Christina at 8217 ft was pretty impressive and both of us definitely now want to come back and trek the Routeburn Track, if only we had had the time to just do it there and then and continue on for the next 3 days....
 
Pleased again with another amazing day, we headed back into Te Anau to stay for the night, after preparing ourselves for our planned 10 hour hike the next day to Luxmore Hut on the Kepler track!