The road is blocked, what a shame. Some larger rocks overhang and impend to skid down on the highway. For this reason the road to Milford is not fit for traffic at the moment. Nevertheless we drive the highway though we can only go up to Hollyford. It’s worth it!
In the beginning the road leads through lower scrubland, yellow blooming gorse gleams from the darker green everywhere. Later on Jane explains that they do not really like the gorse as it spreads like weed. Anyway, it looks great.
The route rises slowly, leading also through woodland. Kakas live here, though we only spot one from the far you can hear their calls. The valley gets narrower, following the course of the River Eglinton. Again fields of lupines as far as you can see, people stop all along the road to take pictures.
We have a break at Mirror Lake to take our first pictures of the day. Okay, it rather is a small pond on which bank they constructed a wooden sidewalk. But the location! Situated on one side of the valley the opposite mountains reflect in the absolute calm water. We hope the camera is able to depict this image as beautiful as it is. We now meet more and more German tourists; one young couple wearing shorts can barely enjoy the views, most of the time they try to beat the sandflies off their naked legs. So far I haven’t experienced the little monsters as horrible as they are here in the fjord land, luckily my “bushman” really works good!
We walk the loop track on Lake Gunn, passing through primeval forest covered in moss. It feels like wandering through Fangorn. Indeed later on I find out that some of the scenes in the film were taken not very far away. Another stop on Lake Marian with a short trip to the correspondent waterfalls completes our program for today. We take the highway as far as we are allowed today, up to the barrier blocking it. What a pity, it seems we have to come back another time!