Beautiful Milford Sound, breathtaking Lake Pukaki and Tekapo and majestic Mt Cook

We were in Cardrona and we were thinking whether if we should drive to Milford Sound or skip it entirely. It was still about 4,5 hours of driving one-way without any stops. And we knew there would be many stops along the way. We had heard from everyone that it's a beautiful place so we decided to make the drive! So we started to drive towards Milford Sound, which again, is not a music festival, even if it sounds like one. 😄 It is a place with fjords and mountains. We had booked a boat tour including a kayak tour and a tour in an underwater observatory. We will come back to these later. On our way we stopped here and there, because the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound is filled with sights. But first we stopped when we saw a river and we thought it would be a perfect spot for lunch. This time - cold rice and peanut butter sandwiches. 😝 We might have a break from peanut butter after this trip! But luckily they sell the ones that don’t have sugar or salt in them here!

On the way to Milford from Te Anau we stopped at some creeks, waterfalls, streams, fields, lakes, etc. It was a beautiful, sunny day so it was nice to explore the surroundings. We had the entire day time to explore the sights because our cruise was not until the next day.

Mirror lake 

Some very interesting rock formations

We arrived to Milford Sound and checked whether there would be a place where we could have something to eat, but no. All of the two places were closed. So, we drove back a bit and parked our car in a hidden spot close to Milford Sound (it was not allowed to overnight in Milford Sound if one didn’t have accommodation). It was again - a night in our tiny car. We were not the only ones there. Besides us, there came two other cars to overnight there.

The next day we drove back to Milford Sound and checked in to our cruise that we had booked with Southern discoveries. At this point we had not heard about a website called “Book me”, which has big discounts on all different activities in NZ, including Milford Sound… Darn. We paid too much. Anyhow, we got on our boat and started the trip. It was on a catamaran and we got very close to the mountains with it, which was cool. The views were beautiful with all the mountains and waterfalls! We also saw some seals and Fiordland crestedpenguins, that are one of the rarest mainland penguins in NZ. We didn’t get any good picture of them, though, because they always popped up from the water for just a few seconds and then dove in again. 😜

Then it was time for some kayaking. We didn’t go very far with the kayaks because the wind and other boats would risk the group getting spread out. But it was still a nice activity to do. It had been nice with some sunshine during the cruise and kayaking, but it was quite ok anyway. It didn’t rain at least! 😄 Milford Sound is known of its not so good weather. It is the rainiest place in NZ and one of the rainiest places in the whole world so we were happy with a cloudy day 😃

As our last part before heading back to the harbor, we got to visit an underwater discovery center. We stepped down in a room under surface level and there were windows all around it and you could see what was happening in the ocean. There were many fish, some sea stars and even black coral! We learned that many of the species we saw are usually in deeper, tropical waters. Why they appear in Milford is that there is a lot of rain which changes the color of the water (it’s darker even though it’s not deep) and it’s cold because of the water from the mountains. They also told that they have seen seals swim by and even dolphins! We were not that lucky this time. It was like a big aquarium, or we were the aquarium for the sea creatures.

Black coral

We got lucky and got one night of accommodation in Te Anau for the next night. Yeay - no sleeping in the car! We stayed at Barnyard Backpackers, which was a bit outside Te Anau center but in a very beautiful spot. Our room was also big and their kitchen was the cleanest and most organized we have seen during our trip in NZ! Something you really start to appreciate when you have seen some disgusting places as well. 😛 In the morning, we woke up to a beautiful view with sunlight and mist over the fields.

Our morning view was just stunning!

Then it was time to drive back inland and a bit further towards Lake Pukaki. We had heard that it’s beautiful and when we looked at it on Google Maps, we could see that the color is quite different than on all the other lakes. On our way we had again, some beautiful stopping points!

Views like these we had for quite some time during our ride 

When we first saw Lake Pukaki we thought it could not be possible! We had seen turquoise rivers, but to see an entire lake that is milky turquoise was something new. We had never seen a lake in that color! And it’s a big lake! We tried to take pictures of it but somehow we couldn’t get the turquoise color in the pictures as it was in real life. It is something you have to go and check yourself! The milky texture/color comes from a combination of the water from glaciers, lake/river water and stone powder from the mountains.

Lake Pukaki

Lake Pukaki and Mt Cook 

We wanted to do a hike to see Mt Cook the next day so we drove to White Horse Hillcampsite where we could park our car and use their restrooms and get more water etc. It was 13 NZD/person (~9 €). The surroundings of the campsite were beautiful, too! We saw a bright star sky and Markus got some great pictures of it!

Our campsite 

Milky Way

We thought we would wake up early to a) see the sunrise and b) be on the trail before everyone is there. The sunrise was beautiful. The sky was blue and yellow and the morning sun hit the clouds making them pink. The “hike” to see Mt Cook is called Hooker Valley track. Nice name, we know… It’s around 10 km return but it’s very easy to walk - mainly flat and as most of the trails in NZ - well-maintained. On the trail we crossed three bridges (one way) and saw how the nature and animals woke up. There were just a few people on the trail when we were there. We had started around 7.45 in the morning. On our way we saw many interesting plants, including Mt Cook lily/buttercup which is the world’s largest buttercup. When we arrived to Hooker Lake, we saw maybe 7 - 8  Keas, alpine parrots. They were playing and trying to steal sticks from each other! We were quite surprised that parrots even live in places where it snows and is winter with minus degrees.

Morning sun hitting the clouds

First of three bridges 

 Mt Cook lily

We got a nice shot of a Kea, don't you think? 

When we came back from Hooker Lake, we saw A LOT of other people coming to the trail. There were many buses that had arrived to the parking lot and other cars as well. Not only was it nicer to go in the early morning because there were not as many people, but also - the clouds arrived and covered Mt Cook almost entirely at least for the following hours. When we were there we could see the entire mountain 😊

Then we drove to Lake Tekapo, which was amazing as well. It wasn’t as light of a turquoise color as Lake Pukaki, but it was stunning. It was a beautiful, sunny day so we decided to go on a beach. We found one nice place and relaxed there for a few hours. We even went for a swim even though the water was very cold! But strangely, it was much nicer to swim in it than in lakes or ocean in Finland when it’s cold. You wouldn’t get us in cold water in Finland but somehow the “milky” water doesn’t feel as cold for so long. Once we were in the water, we could easily swim there for a while.