We left Milford Sound and the sand flies Thursday morning with plans to hit the highlights missed on the drive in. We had missed Mount Tutoki and wanted to get a picture of the highest peak in Fiordland at 9042 feet.
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| Mount Tutoki |
However, we missed the very small cut out where you can get a picture so we had to turn around. The first available place was the Chasms and as we pulled in we spotted a Kea. We have been hoping to see one since we hit the West Coast. I guess I should miss more turns, who knows what we might have found.
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| Kea |
The Kea is a large parrot growing as tall as 19 inches high and weighing 2 - 2.5 lbs. They are called "the clown of the mountains" as they will investigate backpacks, boots or even cars, often causing damage or flying off with smaller items. They became protected in 1986 when their numbers fell below 5000.
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| They aren't shy |
Our next hurdle in getting back to Te Anau is the tunnel. When we were on the cruise the narrator told us that Fiordland gets around 1000 earthquakes a month. The last big one was in July 2009 when it reached 7.8 on the richter scale. She then told us to think of that as we were driving through the tunnel. Thanks alot.
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| The tunnel is somewhere straight ahead??? |
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| The road to the tunnel |
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| Waiting for a green light at the tunnel |
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| We made it. |
We saw the story of Homers Rope when we were in Milford Sound. The sign posts says it all but you can see from the picture where we are waiting for the light at the tunnel how daunting of a task it would have been.
We stopped on the other side of the tunnel and had a look at where the village was situated when the tunnel was being built. It was pretty harsh living as they received no direct sun light from May until September. It was certainly a different generation, I complain when I can't get internet service.
The remainder of the drive was enjoyable, as there wasn't much traffic which enabled us to pull over a few times and take pictures. We also hiked up to Marion Lake Falls but it was only a half hour return trip.
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| Marion Lake River |
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| Marion Lake Falls |
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| Track to Boyd's Lake |
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| Gertrude Valley |
We arrived back in Te Anau in time for a very late lunch and to do a few chores. Our friends from Australia, Bernd and Pam, were back from their cruise into Doubtful Sound so we spent some time with them before calling it a night.
Friday, Day 78, was a pretty relaxing day. It was raining when we got up so we hung around the camper for the morning before heading into town for some lunch. We did a little shopping and headed back to the park dinner before taking a walk along the lake front. We wanted to watch the sun go down over the lake and see if we could get any good pictures.
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| Lake Te Anau |
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| Sitting on the dock of the bay. |
Tomorrow we head for Doubtful Sound.
Did people also warn you about the Kea eating the rubber from your windshield wiper blades? They recommend that you remove the wiper blades if you leave your car unattended for an extended period of time. My wife and I went for a two day hike in the mountains below Mt. Cook and the Kea were in the parking lot chewing on some poor guys wipers so we removed ours.
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