I had planned to stay in Wanaka two days, but looking at the weather at Milford Sound, a chance of two half days of better weather has been forecasted for Sunday and Monday. Milford Sound is on the „critical path“. Weather is usually miserable. Not a lot of sunny days there.
Ergo. Plan changed. Heading towards Milford now - approx. 350km (major two lane roads!) .
Lets see how good weather forecasts tend to be in NZ.
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Just 25km behind Wanaka. A very nice little place in the ski-fields between Wanaka and Queenstown. Cardrona, as you may imagine is the place’s name. A bunch of apartments for skiers in case winter arrives with snow.
Not now. Good for me. No wheel chains needed.
Road through the „Crown Range“ - as said the region between Wanaka and Queenstown.
Queenstown region photographed from Crowns Range Summit
The backside of the „Remarkables“. Queenstown is on the other side. Bypassed for today.
Quite a distance. 197km to Milford Sound. 78km to Te Anau. The road to Milford Sound is a 120km dead end road.
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Getting close to Milford. approx. 40kms to go. It is pouring down.But the weather forecast showed rain for Saturday. Still everything is ok.
Stunning landscapes. I drove through a gorge for 20kms. Waterfalls all along that path left and right every couple of meters another one . Many hundreds of waterfalls.
Finally arrived at the tunnel to Milford. Phantasic scenery just before the „hole the wall“.
The tunnel is approx. 1.5km long. It has bays to pass each other if a bus or car approaches against your direction.
Pitch black inside. And it goes down steep, but straight. Yep, the tunnel goes down steep.