To Milford Sound

 

We caught the 8 am ferry back to the main land.  We'd forgotten to bring Gravol but the seas were pretty calm and it worked out fine.

On our way to Lake Te Anau

After collecting our van  Weheaded northwest for Milford Sound.  It was all flat cow and sheep Ranching country till we reached Lake Te Anau.

We reached the Department of Conservation campsite at Cascade Creek early in the afternoon to find it not busy at all and got a prime spot on the creek. After our experience at Mt. Cook we'd made sure we had a reservation.

DoC campsites provide outhouses, a covered shelter, non-potable water in this case, and a few picnic tables but certainly not a picnic table at every site.  By evening the campsite was full and there was a long line of vans parked next to us.  You can see the white markers on the photo above that show how close the sites are.  

Down the road was a nature trail through a red beach forest.

Lots of big trees

Of course with such big trees we could hear the birds above us but couldn't spot them so high up in the canopy.

We ran into this family. The little girl had a box painted with pictures of insects and the robin was trying to eat them!

In the evening this tree across the creek from our campsite was full of birds.

We saw pipipi (also called brown creeper) and rifleman (actually more like our North American brown creeper), fantails, and chaffinches. Robins were flitting around the van and even weka came trotting by.

What passes for gourmet campfare:  tortellini, carrots and coleslaw.