NZ Day 21 - Humans have turned Keas into beggars

Queenstown was left behind early this morning as we (Peter, whilst I snoozed) made our way to Te Anau. Here we dipped into the visitor centre to find out the weather (rain, although not surprising as it rains for over 200 days a year in the sound) and headed on to the wildlife centre.

The centre was focused around birds, and the first I saw was a naughty Kaka, which was trying to open a Tupperware box that it apparently wasn't supposed to! The Kaka was navy and red (common bird colours in NZ) and quite parrot-like in shape. A bit bigger but also parrot-like was the greeny-bluey Kea, which had a brilliant orange set of feathers under its wings.

Without knowing that wild Keas would feature in our drive to Milford Sound, we donated to the centre (gold coins only) and set off on the second half of today's drive. From Te Anau we cracked our a good 59 km or so before pausing at 'Mirror Lakes'. These were supposed to reflect the mountains behind, but amusingly a couple of ducks were swimming and rather ruining the effect. We didn't mind as the lake at Fox had been far more impressive than this ever would be, but there were a few forlorn looking people standing around with oversized cameras.

Next up and far better was Chasm Creek, an impressive falls of that same ire blue water we've become accustomed to seeing. Here we met an acquaintance from the Abel Tasman boat stay over, so we swapped 'stories since..' For a bit and then departed for our final destination - Milford Sound! To get there we passed through a very crude tunnel called Homers Tunnel, which looked to me as though it had been carved out of the rock many years ago and not touched since. The road surface was extremely lumpy and the tunnel walls unlined. Relieved to make it out to the other side (I don't like tunnels and this was long, narrow and very dark!) we stopped for a breather and a wild Keas came and said hello. I think it wanted food but it had to be content with perching on Wendy. The next car that came along was obviously more exciting to the Kea than food-free Wendy, so it hopped of its perch towards the car. The female oriental passenger had made the mistake of winding down the window and  the Kea made a great attempt at getting inside the car - to her horror and our stifled amusement.

Milford Sound itself turned out to be very terminus-like, as the road literally just ended in a roundabout at the quayside. We took a wander around, admiring the low cloud over the sound and watching boats drift in and out. Maori legend has it that one o their leaders created place after place, and by the time they got to Milford Sound, they had become such an expert at creation that it became the most beautiful place of them all. This wasn't agreeable to the leader of the Underworld though, who was jealous of the beautiful place belonging to the Maori. To deter more people from experiencing Milford Sound they (and my right ankle and foot can verify this) plagued the sound with sandflies. How lovely.