Thankfully the weather has improved slightly. It isn't as rainy and the nights have not been as freezing, but it is still pretty cold so we are wearing all our clothes!

We woke up in Invercargill and went to a nearby garage to get the van windscreen wipers fixed. This got charged to the company, so that was good for our purses! We stocked up on food and went to seek out some Internet to look up cheap camp sites. Stephen came and met up with us again for a coffee and gave us some onward travel tips.

We were intending to travel on to Milford Sound on the South west coast, but by the time we had drank our coffee, finished chatting and found nothing out about campsites, we decided it was a bit too far to make in one journey before dark. Plus, Stephen had said there isn't really anywhere to stay in Milford and instead to stop on the Milford Road that leads up to it. There were lots of governmental camp sites on this road run by the Department of Conservation (DOC). These are very basic, but cheap, sites that usually just have toilet faculties but not even a sink. We stopped at one
Stephen had recommended called Cascade creek, at the foot of some mountains.
When we left Christchurch, we could see the mountains off in the distance, but, as we drove south towards Invercargill, we left the mountains behind and the landscape became more hilly and green. However, less than an hour out the other side of Invercargill, we were suddenly surrounded by gigantic mountain ranges, lakes and rivers. It really is such an impressive and beautiful country. Stephen told us a few times to stop at a small town called Te Anau to top up with petrol, as it is the last real stop to get fuel before the 8 hour return trip to Milford over the mountains. There is one petrol station up there, but it charged a fortune. Unfortunately, we were so distracted by the lakes and mountains, we totally forgot to top up and had to drive 20 minutes back on ourselves! We stopped off at a lot of the lay-bys and lookouts for photo opportunities before arriving at Cascade creek by lake Gunn. We took a quick walk on one of the trails before cooking our tea on our little gas cooker. We then settled in to watch a film until the DVD player broke and just stopped playing the movie. Sally and I were sleeping in the roof box so decided to try and watch the end of the movie on the DVD player up there. The box is probably best suited for one person to sleep in, but two is definitely the maximum. So, we watched the end and Ruth and Jade had to watch it the next night!

As we were watching the last bit of the film, we could hear a commotion downstairs and Jade and Ruth panicking outside. It turns out Jade had seen a mouse on their bed and they had leaped out! Sally and I went down to help empty everything out of the van to see if we could see it, which we couldn't. The back seat chair then decided to get wedged and wouldn't slide back, which we need to do to fold the main bed out. By this time it was 1am and we were all freezing and knackered, so we ended up forcing the chair back so everyone could go to bed! The girls both said they could hear it still scratching around but Sally and I just tried to convince ourselves it wasn't really down there!

The following morning we woke up and set out for Milford Sound. We travelled over, around and through huge mountains and stopped at a chasm to see a really impressive waterfall and rock formation carved by the powerful falls. We arrived at Milford just before lunch and booked onto a cruise around the sound. As it was the same company we hire our camper with, Jucy, we got our boat tickets half price. They also provided free tea and coffee which we were grateful for to warm us up! Before the boat set off we had time to do a waterside walk and decided to make our lunch. As we got the bread out, I noticed the corner of the packet was all chewed, and a mouse-shaped nibble took out of the bread! This was confirmation of our resident mouse!! We thought we had desensitised to the wildlife on the farm in Barraba, but after this, we evidently have not! We phoned Jucy for the third day in a row to report the broken chair and DVD player, and now we have to take it in to the Queensland airport branch on Tuesday.

We boarded our boat and forgot all about the mouse. The scenery is beautiful and is apparently even better after rain. We got a free shower on the boat as we got up close to one of the permanent waterfalls. Due to the landscape, Milford sound is one of the wettest places in the world and when it does rain, after about an hour, hundreds of waterfalls are created as the rain cascades down the mountainsides. We also got up close to see some cute fur seals.

We drove back through Te Anau and decided to carry on up to Queenstown so we could maximise our time in the town. We arrived at a DOC campsite around 7.30pm and got set up. We are camped by lake Moke at the foot of the mountains. It is so pretty to wake up surrounded by such fantastic landscape. Tonight one ring of our gas cooker stopped working, so we will have to get that sorted tomorrow too! I'm not sure this van is going to last us three more weeks when we have had to speak to someone from the company everyday so far!

We now plan to spend a few days in Queenstown, where it will be nice to have a base for a few days, as so far we only seem to have been on the road constantly. It is Sally's birthday on Wednesday so we plan to stay on a nicer campsite and go out for a meal in town to make a change from being in the middle of nowhere! I would also like to say happy birthday to my old man father today, I hope you have a great day working hard! I will be celebrating it here for you by doing a 134meter bungy jump! So, happy birthday Dad! xx

Amy. x