Eglington Camp

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We left Arrowtown and headed into the Fiordlands, which is the area where there are many multi-day tramps and for us great day hikes. The road between Arrrowtown and the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite, Eglington, an easy 2 1/2 hour drive through great scenery. In NZ there each community has well marked information centers and there are often DOC offices where you can get detailed information about the tramps and hikes in the area. We stopped in Te Anue at the DOC office, got the weather report, mostly clear and cool for the two days that we were going to be in the Milford Sound area. We have been keeping about two nights worth of food with us for camping, plus peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for midday meals, so we stocked up with veggies, rice, and some minute steaks and headed out.

We did not know which campsite we were actually going to stay at, but both Holly & I like our privacy and we found a campsite that supposed to have two campsites at it but we spread out and no one came in to claim the second one, there was only one fireplace and table which we occupied. There was a river about 100 yards away, after the sunset the river produce a nice fog that would come into camp, kind of a creepy, cool effect. The stars were brilliant and we have not become experts at seeing the Southern Cross and Orion (which is upside down compared to the how we see it in the States).
Sand Flies are vicious little things with a bite that sticks with you for several days, itching up a storm. We first ran in to them in Totaranui, but they were here as well. The Maori legend states that when one of the Maori gods had created the Fiordlands the goddess of the afterlife created Sand Flies so that people would not want to live for ever in the Fiordlands.

Going to Milford Sound

The next day we drove up to "the Divide", which is like the Continental Divide in the States, this one is produced from the uplift between the Pacific tectonic plate and the Indian Plate. There was a 3 1/2 hour hike from the car park to the Key Summit. The Key Summit has spectacular views and it got it's name since there are three rivers that start here, one going to the West coast, another going to the South coast, and a third going to the East coast. The hike was nothing but up, up, up. At the top was a 40 minute wilderness loop that Holly walked entirely, I had hiked down to Lake Howden Hut and then back up to the wilderness loop, this additional hike really wiped me out, but we made it down, down, down without any problems.

Milford Sound - The Divide