Sat, 14th Mar, 2026 (part3) Freedom campground, Lumsden to Manapouri Holiday Park, Manapouri, NZ (exploring Milford Road)

Sunny now we have returned to the dock. We have seen these signs at every place we have been so far.

Headed back to the camper. I had missed these info boards as there were people standing by them. We should be saying Milford Fiord not Sound as that is for drowned river valleys like Marlborough Sound.

Back to the camper for a cuppa. A Weka - looks like a Kiwi, is darting in and out of the parked cars.

Now for the sightseeing drive back out.

Stopped at Tutoko River to check out the suspension bridge. More Wekas wandering about - cute little things.

Great bridge, crystal clear water and lots of information. What an achievement. Can you imagine if they tried to do that now!

Continued on and across the Donne & Gulliver Rivers on the one-lane bridges that are not far apart. There were suspension bridges here too like the one over Tutoko River.

Turned off into The Chasm. The misty rain has started again so we skipped the walk.

Continued on uphill towards the tunnel.

Four minutes to go so people are out of their cars taking photos of the waterfalls and the Keas who are wandering about. One landed on our roof. They are notorious for chewing things!

Green light - off we go.

More views. You can guess we don’t see snow much!

Stopped at Falls Creek car park. Hollyford River - so clear and I bet it is very cold.

Walked across the bridge to check out the falls - very pretty.

There is a hiking track from here - just disappears into the bush.

Continued on to Pops View Lookout over Hollyford River and Valley. The Hollyford Track leaves from here. Great views.

It is sad that people need to leave their mark as they pass through. They even have stickers made.

Continued up to The Divide. Lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps at 531m. Mountain hikes from here. 

The NZ birds - Kea & Kaka. No picture of the Weka.

Found our little friendly fellow from the car park - a tomtit. I had seen one of these - a Rifleman flitting about on the edge of a tree at Mirror Lake.

Continued on loving the views. Downhill passed the three lakes, little one, Fergus and Gunn. It is windy on the lakes now. Across Cascade Creek then along Eglinton Valley.

Over the rise and Lake Te Anau comes into view.

Skipped Lake Mistletoe, a glacial lake with a walk through the regenerating beech forest, as it is already 6pm and we still have to get across to Manapouri.

Skipped Te Anau village again - only tourist stuff there. Very windy now.

Along the water’s edge where the dam/weir is at the base of Lake Te Anau. The water then flows down the ‘river’ to the top of Lake Manapouri. This is all part of the hydro-power scheme we read about yesterday.

More farms and deer again as we make our way to Manapouri.

I had hoped to stop at the free camp I had on my old Wikicamps at the Manapouri Weir but as all the others have been closed we decided to just stop in a van park as we are going on the Doubtful Sound cruise tomorrow.

No vacancy at the Possum Campground on the Old Coach Road - bit of a narrow drive down to it then back up again.

The Church is now a restaurant. More blue sky now.

Plenty of ‘no camping’ signs. Lake Manapouri was carved by glaciers during the last ice age. Explorers reached its shores in 1852.

Back along to the Holiday Park. It looks like a Swiss Inn with little chalets. Started in 1971 by Carl & Joelle Nicholson, who emigrated from the US to escape the Vietnam War-era draft. They travelled the world in a VW Kombi van before settling here and establishing the park. There is also a large collection of classic Morris Minors here. 90 year old Joelle and sons have leased the park now. Enquired inside - Maori descendants. $50 for an unpowered site - wow. Joys of tourist areas. We will enjoy a nice hot shower tonight at least.

Parked up.

Our route for today.

A few additions to our ‘home’. They don’t supply a bin so we are using the milk carton box. The floor of the shower is very slippery so we got a mat for that. I got this hanger off Jenny and it is very useful - will take it to UK too.

Checked out the amenities - very run down but the water was hot.

An ambulance whizzed passed us with its lights flashing as we in to the Holiday Park. Now we can hear helicopters - bit late for sightseeing trips and it was flying very low. Spotted another one and they kept going around until it was too dark. Maybe there has been an accident.

Thinking of Steve’s mum, Erica, who passed away 3 years ago this evening.