There is only one hotel in Milford sound and it needs to be booked months in advance. We are booking hotels about 3-5 days out so we settled for Te Anau, a small town 120km outside Milford sound… And I am glad we did. Most of the hikes are about halfway between the two and Te Anau has restaurants and reasonable priced hotels.
The first day we hiked The Key Summit Track, the last section of the Routeburn Track (a 4 day hike that is often listed in the top hikes in the world). The Key Summit trail was a great view to effort trek. We climbed gently for ~2 miles with ever improving views of the fjords and surrounding mountains. The hike culminated with a view of Lake Marion (which we will become much more intimate with shortly). On our way up to Key Summit Hike we stopped at Mirror Lakes which offered perfect reflections of the snow capped mountains and then stopped at some grassy field with stunning views of the mountains. Bryce ran through the grass like a crazy person who escaped the asylum.
In the afternoon, we signed up to see the glow worm caves. Some companies don’t allow little children, but we found one that said, “If he can be quiet and still while on a small boat in a dark cave, then he will be fine.” HAHA… Anyone with a 2 year old knows that is an impossible request… but we signed up anyway. The caves were really cool… no pictures allowed. Was Bryce quiet on the little boat in the dark? Nope! He gets a C+. He was “relatively” still on my lap, but was talking and making farm animals sounds. The worms continued to glow… I actually think they appreciated a break from silence 🙂