Days 12-14: Wanaka, Cardrona, Te Anau, and Fiordland & the Milford Sound

The Skinny if you're just here for the highlights: We settled into Wanaka for our first multi-night stay in what felt like forever, hiked Roy’s Peak for crazy views as well as Nepal prep, and I got to horseback ride through perfect fall scenery in Cardrona. Then we continued to Te Anau, where we took a gamble on terrible weather with a late-day Milford Sound cruise. That gamble paid off spectacularly: tens of thousands of waterfalls, a storm that cleared at exactly the right moment, blue skies, golden hour, getting sprayed by waterfalls from the front of the boat, and yet another double rainbow. One of the coolest days of the trip so far.

Scroll down for pictures.

Wanaka

Wanaka is a really cute, seasonal town, similar to Lake Tahoe with its dual popularity in winter (with close access to three popular ski resorts) and summer. The lake is so clean and pretty, and the foliage-- especially the poplar trees around the lake, was absolutely glowing. After a really delicious, family style farm-to-table esk dinner at the Big Fig, we checked into our hotel-- Alpine Resort-- thrilled to finally be staying in one place for more than one night.

CapitalOne travel actually somehow completely screwed up our two night hotel stay in Wanaka, but they turned it around by putting us up in a much nicer apartment hotel on top of giving us a $200 travel credit...

Roys Peak

In preparation for our Trek in Nepal, we thought it would be helpful to have two back-to-back huge hiking days, and though it's one of the most popular (aka crowded) treks in New Zealand, we really wanted to check out the views from Roy's peak. So after a slow recovery morning, and some proper fuel in the form of divine sandwiches from Alleyway Emporium (only offer five curated sandwiches a day and each component is made from scratch) we hiked up 4,200 vertical feet. The trailhead was just 10 minutes out of town, and the 10.5 mile round trip trek was along a steep, switchback path that seemed more like a 4 wheel drive road than a hiking trail. And while it was reasonably busy, with how wide the "trail" the crowds were less of a bother. We met sheep and cows along the way, and (after a lot of practice during our car rides) one of them responded to my "baaahh" call. Since we started later in the day, relatively speaking we did not run into too many people. In any case, the views were totally worth it. We did find it funny that the famous photo spot you see everywhere in New Zealand from Roy's is not actually at the summit-- its about 1000ft below the summit, but it is a fantastic photo spot. Round trip the hike took us about four hours. The way down felt long, especially with soreness sprouting from the back-to-back days, and by the time we were finally finished, we were ready for round two of big plates of dinner at the Big Fig.

The next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast at Federal Diner before continuing on our tour to Te Anou. But first, we stopped just 20 minutes outside of Wanaka in the old mining town Cardrona so I could horseback ride.

Cardrona

Cardrona became a mining town in 1862 after two Englishmen riding along the river saw so much gold, they thought someone had dropped their bounty. This tiny roadside town is now home to one of New Zealand's ski resorts, "Cardrona" as well as the historic Cardrona Hotel which boasts a lovely cafe and restaurant, and Cardrona Distillery which brews unique Gin, as well as Whiskey and Vodka-- though we sadly did not have time to sample these goods. Right next-door to the distillery, however, sits a 15,000 acre, five-generation cattle, sheep and deer farm on which operates The Cardrona Horse Trekking and Quad Bike Tours.

Horseback Riding

Sean patiently read his book while I was able to enjoy the most incredible 1x1 ride with my guide Phoebe. It was a sunny fall day with stunning colors on the surrounding trees. We cantered under a golden grove of willow trees meticulously planted along the Cardrona River to help stop erosion caused by the mining, up a series of hills, past the farm's animals to a lookout point, cantering the whole time. It took me a few minutes to remember how to ride split reigns English style, but once I settled in I felt right at home.

Te Anou

From Cardrona, it was a 3 hour drive, past Queenstown, down to Te Anou-- the "Gateway to Fiordland". When we arrived to town, we took a walk down on lake Te Anou and grabbed one of our favorite Dinners at the Fat Duck, sampling braised lamb and local venison. To be honest, we did not feel that Te Anou itself had too much to offer. There was a Glow Worm Cave tour we could have done from town across the lake, but by the time we finished our walk the weather had turned and it was pouring, so we opted out. There are not many restaurants and most of them have more or less the same menu. But it is the closest town to Fiordland.

Fiordland

The evening's rainfall persisted through the night and into the morning. Sean had read that the Milford Sound is in its full beauty if you can catch it after a rainstorm, so while the forecast predicted rain all day until 5PM, we took a gamble and booked the last boat tour of the day at 4 PM.

The drive alone from Te Anou to Fiordland is an experience in and of itself, so while drive time is only 2 hours, we departed Te Anou at 9:30 AM armed with Sandwiches, Fruit, and a detailed plan of potential pitstops. With the downpouring rain, our schedule did not go completely as planned, but we still enjoyed many cool stops along the way:

Stop 1: 45 minutes into the drive, after taking in the views of the lake, fjord mountains. 3 rainbows and lots of waterfalls, we arrived at Mirror Lakes. This would probably be much cooler in calm weather when the lakes actually function as mirrors reflecting the towering mountains, but with the rain disturbing the water, it wasn't much more than a few small lakes. Still pretty though!

Stop 2: Next we pulled over to Knob's Flat for the last available bathroom stop for the rest of the drive to the port.

Stop 3: Lake Gunn was pretty, but also would have been more stunning in calm weather.

Stop 4: We pulled into Key Summit Trailhead with an unraveling plan to hike Key Summit and View of Lake Marian via a piece of the Routeburn Track (a 20 mile point-to-point Great Walk that crosses the "Southern Alps" connecting Mount Aspiring National Park with Fiordland National Park). We sat in the parking lot for a while waiting to see if the weather would lift a little, but it persisted to rain so hard we couldn't see our our windshield without wipers, so we ditched the hike (also in favor of giving our very sore legs some time to recover) and continued on the drive. Not long after was a simultaneously creepy and impressive 1200 meter, downhill tunnel through the mountain.

Stop 5: The Chasm walk is supposed to be amazing, but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. Though we felt that hardly mattered because the entire rest of the drive was so spectacular. We were surrounded by more waterfalls than it would ever be possible to count-- thousands and thousands-- that spilled into gushing, bright blue rivers. We pulled over constantly to more fully appreciate these sights along the way.

Stop 6: The Milford Sound Lodge is the only public accommodation inside Milford Sound. Its an adorable boutique wilderness lodge and luxury glamping-style accommodation just a few minutes from the cruise terminal. It was the perfect spot to grab a snack, some tea and wifi before heading to our tour, and would be a truly lovely place to spend the night.

The Milford Sound

As our boarding time approached, the rain did not let up in the slightest, and while doubt began to creep in, we still had hope that the sky would magically clear. We figured out too late that people will begin to queue in line outside the cruise dock 30 minutes before the boarding time, so while we were far from first in line, once we did board we got really lucky. While the crowd shoved to get spots in the outside upper deck, we snagged the curved bench in the front port side of the boat. It did not take long for the masses to rush inside for protection from the storm. Meanwhile, we cruised along the West shore the whole trip-- there and back-- giving us the best views for the trip's entirety. What's more is that our spot also gave us direct access to the doorway to the open bow. This was relatively useless for the first portion of the ride, through torrential downpour, tumultuous winds and angry whitecapped seas, you couldn't last more than 30 seconds out there. But we had amazing views of gushing waterfalls from our angled window which remained relatively clear.

30 minutes in, Captain Quinn (called Skipper in NZ) came over the loud speaker to say that we were entering the narrowest part of the Sound, which sometimes acts as a wind tunnel, and may cause us to have to turn back and cancel the ride... but in the middle of the choke, miraculously, it suddenly began to calm down and Sean and I, and one other guy were able to get out onto the deck just in time to be sprayed by a giant, super close waterfall. It was magical! Up ahead we could finally see blue skies and feeling positively hopeful they were here to stay.

As we passed through the final bit of light weather, I popped up to the captains "warehouse" to chat with Skipper Quinn. Before taking up this post seven months ago, he spent years working in the fiords as a commercial fisherman and freediving for Abalone-- a delicacy which are only permitted to be caught via freediving. He recounted some of his amazing adventures in those years diving with whales, surfing when the fishing wasn't good, and venturing to far southern desert islands. He told us that, amazingly, there are actually only four permanent waterfalls on the Milford Sound and hadn't seen that many waterfalls in weeks and actually said they were the best he had seen them in months. He also mentioned as that he had considered not even taking the boat out today and canceling the ride. We were beyond thankful that he did not because it turned out to be one of the most beautiful experiences we have both ever had.

By the time we made it out to the Tasman Sea, the sun was shining bright with golden hour lighting in preparation for sunset, and the sky showed not evidence of its recent 24 hour tantrum. As we turned around to head back towards the docks, the most spectacular, complete double rainbow sprung overhead, and Quinn took us for a several joyrides directly into the front of one of the four permanent waterfalls, which flows from the melting glacier that once upon a time carved the Sound itself.

We watched the sun set beyond the snowcapped mountains distantly behind the boat terminal, and as we pulled in, we were a little freezing but completely elated with the events of the day, and enjoyed gaping and even more waterfalls with what little light we had left on the drive home. Once it turned dark, we had the benefit glimpsing both a glowing moon and vibrant stars. We capped this epic day off with another meal the the Fat Duck, celebrating with fresh oysters.

Mitre Peak Cruises

We used Mitre Peak Cruises for our trip because after some research, we found that with their smaller boats, they are able to get closer to the shore and falls than any other outfit. And if the smaller boat size wasn't already super appealing, they also only fill bookings up to half capacity of the already small boats. So it was a much calmer, more intimate experience than some of the other options. And Captain Quinn was the absolute best. 10/10.