We stopped by the tourist office (which was now open) to find a walk. We were hoping to do a bit of the famous Milford Sound Track. Unfortunately you can't get it from here... or from anywhere by walking. You needed to take a boat. The best she offered us was a tour. Actually, there was very little walking to be done at all in the area; we'd already done the only two walks there were. The next closest walks were back over the pass, on the other side of the tunnel.
So we just headed back to the lodge and rechecked in. This time we had our own little cabin. It was remote in the sense that is was far away from things (including the bathrooms) but also not remote because there was a whole cluster of them, lined up to face directly into the window of the next one. But it was still cute and fun. It started to rain heavily so we had some lunch on the bed.
Our box away from home
Um... balls of.... grass??
The lovely, albeit wet, view
Complete with space heater and an umbrella
Duct tape... classy!
Rock to prop out rain gutter... even classier!
Trips to the facilities became highly weather dependant!
Preparing some sandwiches
When the rain stopped, we took a walk along the river. It started out as a nice gravel path then turned to a soft dirt one. There were a couple of places where rock scrambling was required. We had no idea where the path went... or if/when it would end.
Glancing back upriver toward the lodge
There was an incredible assortment of rocks, covering just about every pattern and color of the spectrum you could think of!
We eventually arrived at Deepwater Basin. Several cormorants sat admiring the view as well.
It started raining on the way back. This made the colored rocks look even prettier, but things started to get a bit muddy and slippery.
An avalanche of rocks cut off the path and needed to be clambored over.... not as pleasant to do when wet and slippery.
We made it back to the cabin before it started to rain very, VERY hard. So we just worked a bit on our laptops, admiring the view outside. We finished off the last pieces of feijoa chocolate to celebrate Easter.... since clearly the bunny wasn't going to make it down this far in this weather.
In spite of the violent storm outside, it was very quiet inside, given it was basically just a tiny metal box. One couldn't hear a single drop of rain pelting the roof or sides of building... just the sound of blowing wind and getting a bit of the driving rain through the slightly opened window. Suffice to say, we were going to have to wait a while for a bathroom run!
