The stunning Lake Marian Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand
By Jamin Appleford on 10-Apr-17. Waypoint GC7439C

Answers sent through to CO, a brilliant day and our 2nd visit to this lake.

Awesome spot to visit.

Na een heerlijke cruise op Milford Sound rijden we redelijk vroeg terug naar Te Anau. Daarom hebben we alle tijd om een wat langere wandeling te maken. Nou... wandeling... Bij nader inzien was het een aardig pittig traject, klimmen en klauteren over rotsen en boomwortels, een hoogteverschil van 400 meter. Dat zijn we thuis niet gewend.We hebben er dan ook iets langer over gedaan dan de gemiddelde hiker, en we hebben ook alle tijd genomen om boven een beetje bij te komen en de antwoorden op de EC te vinden. Lake Marian is beslist de moeite waard, net zoals zoveel mooie plekjes in NZ!TFTC!PS: took us 3 days to recover from this (what we now know is classified as a) Tramping track

On holiday in New Zealand, caching when we can between attractions.Wow! Definitely one of the most challenging earthcaches we have ever attempted. We were tempted to turn around a couple times, but in the end persevered.Thanks for the great earthcache! Favorite point awarded!

Here from the U.S. The roots and rocks made the hike more challenging for me, but we persisted to the end to see the beautiful Lake Marian. Thanks for the earthcache! Answers sent.

Made the challenging hike up to Lake Marian on a sunny afternoon where we were rewarded by a clear blue sky and a clear and calm lake. Absolutely stunning views. Had lunch here and went for a brief paddle in the lake to ease our weary feet!Fav point for the amazing location!

Together with Travelser I'm going Down Under. We are driving around with a motorhome. After 7 weeks driving around through Australia we arrived the 2th November in New Zealand. For ten days we will cross the Northern Island and than for 2 weeks the Southern Island.During our trip we of course search for several caches. Most of them brought us to very nice spots, like this one.All the CO's, and in this case Jamin Appleford, thanks for bringing us here and give our trip a special accent.

After traveling around Australia with Oopie for 7 weeks, we have now been traveling with the camper in New Zealand for 4 weeks. Along the way we will of course also visit various types of caches in beautiful places, including this one.Because we solved the questions together, Oopie will submit the answers with your permission.. Thanks CO for creating and laying this cache.

Thanks for the cache from czech republic.

Nice trek.

After visiting Milford Sound earlier this day we missed the direct sunlight into the valley unfortunately, but we still had a nice hike up there.

Danke für den Cache!
Thanks for the cache!

Was raining when I did the other cache here so did not do the walk. Today was fine and sunny and needed a good hill to test my knees. Should not have set off at 1pm though as stinking hot and humid, made for a slow trudge up the steep climb with lots of rests and youngsters forging ahead. Lask km or so thankfully not as steep so made my way down from the toilet highpoint to the lake. Certainly a very fine view but stunning? Maybe I have seen too many other fine places but certainly worth the walk and a short paddle at the outflow as I pondered the questions. A fine rest before heading back up then down in the allocated 3 hours, so maybe not as unfit as I thought.

If you want a better view of the lake (and an easier walk even if higher) I recommend doing the Key Summit hike and carrying on past the signed viewpoint for the best view and some clues for the questions.

Wow, what a stunning location.

People have been telling me about lake marian for months, that it was a stunning location well deserving of a visit.. perhaps even a swim.

I'm glad i left it until now, it would have been much colder had i gone a few months back.

Hitchhiking a ride with other hostellers, we left relatively early to potentially get the lake to ourselves and have a refreshing dip and sunloll before dragging our feet again homeward bound.

Jawdropping was what i stumbled out into after a solid hour and a half hike through the jungely uphill environment.
Wow

Thank you jaminappleford for choosing to create an earthcache at this stunning location and teaching me a few things along the way.

This is earthcache find number 121 and total find number 3870.

The lake was stunning and worth the effort.

What a walk. This lake is defintely stunning. The first 10 minutes of the walk, along the river is a pleasure to the eye (and the camer. Next the walk is strenuous, but as our Mr8 loves it: rocks, roots, mud. Once on top we discovered the lake, what a beauty. The three men went for a swim, as quite a few other trampers. The top layer of water is quite warm (compared to the depth of the lake). the sun was very hot, and it was easy to dry on the rocks. My dad's sole broke (again, and he came back with a shoe without sole. In total we took 6 hours for the adventure. Including many photo stops, a lunch, a swim, a dry and more photos on the way back. Mr8 spotted a water bottle in the falls.
Thanks for placing here, great place to come and enjoy!

Greetings from Australia!
Lake Marian would have to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. Well worth the hire car and 6 hours of driving (return) from QT to get here! The weather turned it on for us too! About 26 degrees and perfectly sunny.

When planning our NZ trip, I knew I needed an "International" D2/T4 rated cache for a challenge cache near my home I've been working on, and surprisingly on our planned route there weren't too many of these around. This cache jumped out as the best option so we rearranged the trip, got a Hire Car and came here for this (and the views).

After making it up the hill, we were pretty sweaty and felt the urge to test out how cold the water was and have a swim. At first it felt too cold for my liking however after pushing through the first minute or so, it became just delightful and refreshing and we probably spent the next 20 minutes splashing around. Being from a coastal area, it was a nice change to be swimming in such a large area of freshwater.

After the swim it was straight onto the rocks to warm up and laze around like a seal for a bit, as well as taking the opportunity to read through the description and answer the questions. (WiFi is a bit up and down and we are short on time for this trip so I will send through the answers when I get a moment - please remind me if I forget).

Thanks for showing us this impressive lake, it's one I will never forget. Favourite point added for sure!

Thanks for bringing us to this spectacular place. We couldn't have picked a better day with clear skies and snow to lake level. We felt very lucky to have the place to ourselves, even if the steep valley sides prevented the sun reaching us. Gathered our answers for the earth cache while we ate our lunch.

Been on my to do list for a while ...unfortunately when I reached the lake the clouds had not cleared so the view wasnt very stunning...hung round for an hour hoping it would change but no joy...tftc

12:33
FITW GreenMenace, Garp Baxter

Wow, not only the lake but the whole walk to it was pretty stunning!
Marian Falls, the bouldery slopes, the lush forest...

Unfortunately, for the most of the time we were up here, the weather was very foggy and looking across the lake all we could see was white. There were only a few fleeting moments when the clouds cleared and opened up one or an other side of the surrounding cliffs and mountains. But this also gave a certain aura of mysticism and secrecy to it.

Also, looked like the level was very high up on the lake, as I thought it would be easy to walk around on the shore but the water reached above what looked like was normally the shore of it. I didn't even manage to get all the way exactly to GZ but did a bit of brushing through wet foliage to get to within about 50m.

The answers are sent and I'm attaching pictures to show the changing weather conditions that were happening right as we were there.

This walk was also my first **ramble** for Rambler's Reward Challenge Cache!

Kia ora! Paldies!
TFTC, Jamin Appleford!
#8550

Another stunning Te Anau day so a trip to Lake Marian was begging. Staying at my brothers place and with him having the day off provided a bit of company. A steady pace had us at the lake in 75 minutes but was too quick as all the cloud had not fully burnt off. The longer we stayed the better it got. A stunning location for sure - would have come here anyway as this is our thing but the earth-cache was an added bonus. Good to be here in this Covid era as the place was not too crowded.

Can not recommend enough that more others complete this trip, as every bead of sweat you lose on the way up is more than made up with the scenery on arrival at GZ.

A fav for sure.

Tftc Jamin

Thought this would be a quickish walk up to the lake ... took us much longer than the 3 hours return! But once you are committed after 2 hours walking, you just have to keep going! We had the lake to ourselves on Christmas Eve, so it was an extraordinary place of solitude and beauty. Passed a few people on our way up and down - one couple with backpacks intending to pitch tents - would have been an amazing place to wake up to on Christmas morning. There is a toilet near the lake. TFTC. Hope at least some of my answers were right!

After a very nice trip through Milford Sound we decided to take a hike in the afternoon. Having found the Lake Marian track recommended often, little did we know about what we had decided to tackle.
Seeing the sign at the waterfall promising "some rough sections" we started in a good mood. With the track then alternating between normal paths to mud, essentially a streambed, roots, piles of stones and back, always going up. The high humidity didn't help either, so when we arrived at the lake, we were sweating a lot and saw .... nothing! Unfortunately, the humidity had caused a dense fog which allowed for visibilities between about 15 and 50 meters.
Nevertheless, this was one of the coolest trips of our holidays and we were so happy to get a warm shower in Te Anau in the evening. TFTC!

Wow what a hike, think we were the only two gray haired people that made it to the lake. Can’t believe my ankles and knees didn’t complain more. Took is a bit slower making sure of my steps, but still had time to take in the views and enjoyed the lake. With the recent rains there wasn’t as much shoe to explore. Answers sent and pictures posted. TFTC

Had lovely walk back up to Lake Marion.
Thanks for the cache, will try to drop some photos onto the log but I couldn't get it to log from my phone for some reason.
This walk today is included as Ramble 2 for the Rambler’s Reward Challenge Cashe GC 2XBA7

After visiting Milford Sound, here I am doing the Lake Marian Track. Haven't seen Banff and Jasper lakes in Canada yet, but I'm sure they are similar! What a great color!

TFTC

SaxGuit from Quebec, Canada

We could find this geocache while traveling from Te Anau to Lake Marian. First one of today was the earth cache at the mirror lakes. Not all answers were found easily, probably because we were distracted by the ducks on the lake. Second one was Deer Flat Wee Hillocks. I needed this old one for my Jasmer and enjoyed the scenery near the little river while logging this one. Lake Gunn was the third of the day. What a lovely spot. Last one was The stunning Lake Marian. The questions on this earth cache were not that easy. The fact that I'm a geography teacher made it not easier. Thanks for all these caches!

First visit to New Zealand, and what a way to see this beautiful country - a lap of the South Island by motorhome! We started in Christchurch and then drove through the hills of the Southern Alps to the west coast.

Today we explored the area between Milford Sound and Te Anau. Lake Marian was the surprise location of the whole trip as it had not been on our radar. Fortunately the EC stood out so we trekked up and up and up (so many false summits) to be finally rewarded with the most amazing sight.
I hadn't changed my FB profile picture in 10 years. This location was impressive enough that it finally warranted a change. That's how good it was particularly at this time of year.
Answers emailed and promptly confirmed by the CO (10 May 2018).
TFTEC. Of course it has to be a favourite.

The last time we walked up to Lake Marian, we could could see a whole 10 metres from where we were standing. Very atmospheric, but... So when we were planning a maintenance visit to Deer Flat, Mr D said he wanted to go back to Lake Marian so he could see the famous view.

A nice dry walk up through lovely beech forest - and an astonishing number of other people also doing the walk, both backpackers and guided groups. Lunch in the sun with glorious views - those peaks are awesome!

And, since we were here last there has been an earthcache placed! That meant a bit of focussed attention on what we were seeing, thank you Jamin.

Log and answers will follow, hopefully not too far into the future. Visited with daywalk.

After visiting Milford Sound we visited Marian Lake. the track had recommended us to our son. he was alone up here. Today there were a lot of people on the way. After a strenuous climb we were rewarded with a nice view.

tftc
Trassolix

Fund Nr. 3673

Found this place on a beautiful day. FavPoint for the nice location!

TFTC
#SBCF

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