It wasn't the alarm clock that woke us, it was the noisy guests at the hostel who hadn't learned how to close doors quietly. And there was the vacuum cleaner... I ignored all of the above and rested until nearly 11:00 then was turfed out of bed with instructions that we needed to leave by noon if we were going to go shopping for picnic supplies this afternoon before the shops close for Christmas.
We left Te Anau for the day and travelled north to Milford Sound, having acquired some more medicine for myself and received a diary in the process and advice to buy local insect repellant to protect ourselves from sandflies tomorrow.
Our journey took us past Lake Te Anau, through the Eglinton Valley past Earl mountains, which is a vast valley and home only to grasses and alpine lupins as the volcanic ash that fell many thousands of years ago can not support tree growth. In the background Mount Christina and the Ailsa mountains can be seen as their snow-capped peaks pierce the cloudy sky.
Along the way we stopped at Mirror Lakes in an effort to photograph a perfect reflection of mountains in the lake. Again the wind was present so the reflection was marred but the water was exceptionally clean and turquoise in colour. The final 20 kilometres to Milford Sound included a 4 kilometre experience through Homer Tunnel. It was very dark and with the normal aid of headlights you still couldn't see a thing. It was pretty unnerving! Beyond Homer Tunnel was the Chasm, a river gorge that had carved wonderful holes out of rock over the years. It was evident of a very powerful force at work.
The snow and ice was very low on the surrounding mountains. Milford Sound was misty, rain had started to fall. The mist cast wonderful shadows and haunting scenes, it actually looked like an optical illusion. A short walk at Milford Sound took us to Bowen Falls, a spectacular waterfall if not a little wet for spectators! I imagine it's best viewed from a boat sailing on the Sound.
We enjoyed another jam sandwich picnic in the car before heading back to Te Anau.
A quick shop for our Christmas Day picnic supplies revealed we would be dining on polish salami with brie on grain rolls for Christmas Day lunch. This would be accompanied by nacho cheese tortillas and chilli dip, followed by a selection of cakes and a banana.
Today we travelled 248 kilometres from Te Anua and back again! We saw another falcon soaring above the fields and a possum struggling to move out of the road near Milford Sound, he was really dozy as if he'd been injured by a car but survived the impact.
We completed our Christmas Eve with a big meal at a restaurant in Te Anau, several games of bao while Ian drank several more bottles of beer and the picnic was prepared in lieu of our early start on Christmas Day.