NZ 2011day by day

-10- Direction Mitre Peak

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.
***

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.

Cardrona_5103

Road through the „Crown Range“ - as said the region between Wanaka and Queenstown.

Queenstown-5141

Queenstown region photographed from Crowns Range Summit

Queenstown-5137

The backside of the „Remarkables“. Queenstown is on the other side. Bypassed for today.

Remarkables-5158


To Milford-5182

Quite a distance. 197km to Milford Sound. 78km to Te Anau. The road to Milford Sound is a 120km dead end road.

To Milford-5185
***

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“.


To Milford-5200

To Milford-5210

To Milford-5213


The tunnel is approx. 1.5km long. It has bays to pass each other if a bus or car approaches against your direction.
Happy
Pitch black inside. And it goes down steep, but straight. Yep, the tunnel goes down steep.

2011 HPTrum