Oh what a beautiful morning (and afternoon)

I had a bit of a shock when I woke up this morning - there was a strange woman in bed with me!!!!!  She was similar to OF1 but had a massive top lip - botox or a mosquito bite?  However the view out of the window was better - a layer of mist clung to the valley in the distance.

We are staying in a B & B so off we toddled to breakfast and met the owners and the Danes in the other cottage hidden away in the garden.  They were great walkers and we chatted about 'tramping' as well as Brexit, price of cars/houses/dairy products, etc. with them and our hosts over a yummy brekky.  

Full of vigour and food we set forth to the west.  This was a road trip to beat yesterday and a walk up a small peak en route.  In glorious weather (or wither in kiwi) we drove to Milford Sound but stopping frequently to take pictures of Lake Gunn, the mountains, etc.  The road is a bit of a grockle highway but there was only the sporadic coach or cimper van.  The views of the The Anau Downs, the lakes and then the mountains were many moments of awe and wonder (to fulfil our SMCS requirement for travelling by Ofsted).  There is a 1.4 km tunnel which is single track but someone clever had worked out that traffic lights were better than being forced to reverse for 0.7km (they had obviously seen my reversing!).  There is an electronic board which counts down to when the lights are going green - 4:30 minutes on the way there.

At Milford we had a stroll along the shore path, a coffee then a swift ascent of the lookout.  There were great views of the almost sheer, glaciated walls dropping into the dark water with snow covered peaks and fluffy white clouds.  Mitre Peak looked imposing and just like....A mitre.

We set off back and stopped for lunch at a quiet spot looking at the alpine scenery.  It was a geography teacher's paradise with U shaped valleys, truncated spurs, hanging valleys, moraines, drumlins, terraces, et al.  Private A Level lessons are available......

We stopped at a heaving car park and just found a spot for Tanya the Toyota.  This was the start of the Routeburn Track which we followed uphill for about 3km in forest of ever decreasing height.  We then branched off to scale Key Summit (919m) which zigzaged steeply for another kilometre up alpine meadow to the top where photos were taken - see below.

We reversed the route at pace and returned to base to scrub the sweat, sun block and insect repellent off and we are now off to find a little bistro...