Failand

Our plan was to head down to Fiordland and Milford Sound area to do some day hikes and to take a cruise on the Milford Sound. We had taken a couple days extra in Queenstown to wait out the torrential downpours that were hitting Fiordland but it seemed like the rain kept getting pushed back a day or two as well. Any who, we left Queenstown, and drove down to Te Anau, which is the last and biggest real town on the Milford highway before you're really out in the boonies.

Upon arrival at the entrance to Fiordland, it was pouring buckets and buckets of rain. Originally we had wanted to do the Milford track, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful of the multi-day tracks that you can tramp in New Zealand. The cabins that you stay in along the way were booked for at least a month when we tried to look into it. Back to my story, we decided to take a quick walk in the rain to see if maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stick around for a few days and hike in the rain. Nope, it sucked, and it was cold. So we headed to warm cafe to have some hot tea and thaw out so we could figure out our next move. We were both incredibly disappointed because the Milford area had been something that both Don and I had been really looking forward to. 

After some discussion, we decided that we need to skip Fiordland and head back so that we didn't waste a bunch of time waiting for the rain to stop. It was a hard decision but it all worked out really well. We drove all the way back to Queenstown and Wanaka area...ugh, lots of driving for nothing!

This photo is blurry from all the rain on the windows...and from how fast we were trying to get away from the rain

Hmmm...Te Anau / Milford Sound or back towards Gore

Trying to keep a positive attitude despite the heavy downpours

We decided to start working out way up the west coast of the South Island...which I'll share about in our next blog post!