Saturday 10th February – Journey into the Fjordland National Park

Reaching the boundary of the Fjordland National Park

We were only about one and a half hours away from Te Anau, the gateway to the Fjordland National Park which includes Milford Sound.  We did consider driving some extra miles south to the coast, just so that we could say we’d been to the most Southerly point ever in our lives. But this seemed like a waste of time and money when this camper is a gas guzzler.  I’m sure there is some beautiful coastline down there, but there is a lot to see in the National Park, so we opted to head that way instead.  The lady at the Visitors
 Centre gave us a map and circled some of her recommendations for short and not-so-short hikes with the best views and off we went.

The Eglinton valley and, below, an aerial view from a poster there...

It being the height of the summer season we were concerned about the campsites filling up, so chose to head to the last one prior to Milford Sound with flushing toilets (bonus) AND it meant that we got to stay at the vaguely-comically named ‘Knobs Flat’ (now, come on).  We bagged one of the last spots and reserved it for two nights.  Now we were free to explore and walk knowing that we had somewhere safe to park our wheels.

We back-tracked slightly, heading south for a short while to visit the Mirror Lakes, so named because of the reflection of the surrounding Earl Mountains in the water.  This was a very brief walk to just have a leg stretch.

A breeze across the surface of the water of the Mirror Lakes ruined the reflection for us today..

A tomtit... I think!

We started noticing traps set at regular intervals... I will explain the relevance of them later in the blog, it's part of the fight to save the ground nesting birds

We then decided to head for some waterfall views, initially to the Humboldt Falls (left), followed by Marian Falls, both of which were half-hour round-trip walks.  There were additional rivers and flimsy swing bridges to offer some very pretty views.

A selection of swing bridges...

Moraine Creek

Marian Falls

Views of the Hollyford Valley

On the return journey we stopped at Pops View for some views of the Hollyford Valley.  There was a smattering of snow on the peaks of some of the mountains furthest away and maybe even a slice of turquoise glacial ice visible, making me reminisce about our time in the Rockies in Canada.  I expect the mountains contained in this park are equally as dramatic during the cold season with much more snow visible.  However, I am grateful for the warmth this time as our mobile accommodation is not nearly as well equipped to keep us warm as Harvey the RV was!

We settled into our spot in Knobs Flat for the evening.  It was a fine night to be able to sit outside and appreciate the view. We have not done nearly as much of this type of camping in the national parks as we did in the US, so it is a welcome return to feeling right in the wilderness with no phone signal or internet to speak of.