We left Te Anau at 7.20am to make sure we will have plenty of time before our 4.30pm cruise to make the most of the very scenic road between Te Anau and Milford (120km, 2h with no stops). The landscapes just before Boyd Creek were very nice but we found the stop at Boyd Creek not worth it. By the time we arrived at the Mirror Lakes (58km) it started raining a lot, no chance to see the famous reflexions of the mountains in those small lakes. We still managed to take a picture of the board with its reflexion in the water when it rained a bit less (see picture). Afterwards we stopped at Cascade Creek (77km) where we did the lake Gunn nature walk (45min return), a very nice walk through a native Red Beech forest. We saw massive trees (see picture). We wanted to stop at the Divide (85km) to do a 3h walk up to the Key Summit but as it was still raining a lot we gave up and instead we turned onto the unsealed Hollyford road to have a look at the Gunns Camp early settlers museum. We ended up not visiting the museum as he looked very small (only one room) and not very interesting. We had a look at the shop and drove back to the main road. From the Divide, the road up to the Homer tunnel offers stunning landscapes with a lot of waterfalls, shame we could not enjoy it fully as the weather was very foggy. We stopped before the entrance of the tunnel to have a look at the landscape and ended up with a Kea on the roof of our car and lots of tourists around taking pictures! There are always some Keas hanging around at both ends of the Homer tunnel. After crossing the tunnel we stopped at the Chasm to see those weird holes made by the river in huge rocks (see pictures). To get to the Chasm we walked through a very nice rain forest. The weather was very rainy and misty when we arrived at Milford so we went to the only cafe to wait a bit hopping that the weather will get better. Unfortunatelly it did not happen so after having hesitated a lot we decided to not do a cruise (at least NZ$60) as the visibility was very poor. We drove back to Te Anau under the rain but enjoyed what the fog allowed us see of those beautiful landscapes.
