driving to milford

The drive to Milford Sound was fantastic. We were on the bus before 7am but the first 2 hours of the trip (before getting to Lake Te Anau) are pretty uneventful so we made the most of it and had a nap. After stopping for breakfast at Te Anau the sights were much more spectacular - the driver stopped as much as possible for photo opportunities, which despite being very touristy I was more than glad to do.

First stop:

Just a couple of minutes later we stopped here:

where it rains nearly every day of the year! The driver thought the sunshine was too good an opportunity to miss.

It was a little while until we got to the Mirror Lakes. The view is truly astounding (I'm running out of adjectives here...). The first part of the lake is so-so, you can see a reflection of the sky and vaguely the mountains but we were disappointed thinking that it was that image about which there was so much hype, however, following the path around the corner we saw this:

The bus was glass topped, so as we drove closer to the Sound we could see the peaks of mountains through the roof:

Obviously it's not great for photography but if you have the opportunity it would be great to experience it for yourself.

More scenes from the drive: