Our last day in Queenstown we took a trip to Milford Sound. This is one of the most famous sights in New Zealand. Milford Sounds is actually a Fjord and was formed by a glacier thousands of years ago. It is in the middle of nowhere, even more isolated then most things in NZ and to get there takes a long coach journey. We left Queenstown at 7am and headed off through the countryside of an area known as Fiordland. (Full of fjords unsurprisingly, the kiwi's are nearly as unimaginative as the aussies when it comes to naming things) The road between Queenstown and Milford sound is around 300km and passes through some stunning scenery. Initially its quite flat and open with the land being used for dairy farming, it then slowly moves up into the mountains and the landscape changes becoming more rocky and on the day we did the trip it was pretty rainy and snowy. Unlike the other mountain crossings we had done, there is no direct pass over to Milford sound. Instead, you must drive through the Homer tunnel - 1.2km long and blasted out of the mountain, this is a rugged and rough road, that slopes downwards toward the lower levels. It is quite eerie as there are barely any lights in there and from the outside it looks like one of the entrances to a secret army bunker.

Once you get to Milford sound itself, there are loads of boat tours out into the fjord, giving you a chance to see it all at close range. Despite the fact that it is so isolated, because of the journey time to get there, it gets very hectic for about 3 hours every lunchtime. The sound itself is amazing to see, but quite hard to explain what is so impressive about it. The first thing you appreciate is the size and scale of the sound. The tour boat then takes you out toward the sea and you are surrounded on all sides by these huge mountains carved by the glaciers. The water is fairly still so the journey is comfortable, but the weather was pretty poor. Like much of the west coast, the rainfall in the area is huge and there are rivers and waterfalls all around you cascading over the mountainsides. Because of the volume of the water, the fresh water doesn't dissolve and then sits on top of the seawater. This leads to a dark coloured water where the seawater below is substantially colder and has less oxygen than normal. Its a haven for diving as life that normally only exists at 50m or below is present in only 10m of water. Having said that, it was too cold for even me to think about diving. Milford is also home to a number of unique species that you don't have to risk hypothermia to see. The highlights for us were the bottlenose dolphins that came alongside the boat and swam beside us for ages. Emma nearly toppled overboard trying to get herself in the same shot. There were also fur seals dotted along the coast and rare yellow-eyed penguins which are endangered across NZ. The whole trip was loads of fun, it is truly stunning scenery all around and after some hectic days in Queenstown it was nice and relaxing to let someone else take the strain and show us around.

The next day we left Queenstown and started back onto our loop of the south island, back to Christchurch. Our first stop wasn't very far, just 2 hours up the road to a town called Wanaka. Wanaka is a bit more low key and middle class than Queenstown. It is also a big ski town with 2 resorts less than 30 minutes away, but it is a bit less of a backpacker destination; more of a real town and more middle class. There are nice cafes and bars and proper supermarkets all around town. The downside to this is that there are less hostels, and they are all dotted around the edge of town. Our pack's were beginning to get a little heavy by this point and a 30 minute walk to the hostel wasn't any fun. Having said that, the hostel was lovely. We ended up in a little 2 bedroom apartment they had with a nice tv, kitchen an a proper couch. It's amazing how even the most basic things are so nice when you have been without them for a while. There isn't many tourist attractions in Wanaka. We were only there for 1 night, but we spent our afternoon in Puzzling World. This has been setup by some bloke who likes mental puzzles and the whole place is set up with optical illusions and puzzles. There is a huge maze as part of it that you have to try and get round by going to different towers. Its quite hard, and took us nearly an hour but a lot of fun for an afternoon. However, the highlight of the trip to Wanaka is the Cinema Paradiso, the coolest and weirdest cinema I have ever been to.

The cinema was built a few years ago and is run by a scottish bloke who settled in Wanaka. It's a weird old place, it's like the old fashioned single screen cinema's that used to be around. The films it shows aren't the most recent, usually a few weeks behind, but the real attraction is the cinema itself. All the seats are made up of a mish-mash of couches, chairs, sofa's lay-z-boys and in one corner, an old morris minor. There is a cafe/restaurant that is part of it and you can get dinner before the movie and then take your food and a couple of beers in with you. And then, halfway through the movie, there is an interval because they need to change reels on the projector. So everyone files out, and the cafe has freshly baked cookies available. Its soooo cool and I definitely recommend it to everyone if they are in NZ. We left Wanaka the next day and headed for Franz Josef Glacier. I was really looking forward to this part of our trip and it didn't dissapoint.

The Franz Josef glacier is the smaller of 2 main glaciers on the west coast of NZ, but it is more accessible and there is a huge tourist industry built around it. We got into town mid afternoon on Sunday and it was clear at this point that not a lot goes on around here. We took a stroll round and came across the town church which I hoped for mass to be on.Having checked though, they only do mass once a month which would definitely suit a few people that I know. The church itself is really nice and quaint and has great scenery around it, with the glacier in the background.

I could talk for ages about what a glacier is and why its quite impressive and rare that its so close to the sea, however I have already been told off for boring people, so I won't. Emma had decided that she didn't want to join me in climbing the glacier as for some reason climbing up a giant block of ice wasn't her cup of tea, but I couldn't wait to get going. As I said, there is a huge tourist industry that has built up around the glacier and Franz Josef Glacier Guides ( http://www.franzjosefglacier.com ) offer a variety of options for all sorts of abilities. You can walk just to the terminal face of the glacier, do a half day climb or a full day climb like me.If you have a few spare quid, they will even helicopter you up to the top for a walk around up there. As I said, I took the full day option which is roughly an 8 hr trip including 6hrs on the ice itself. One thing that was a coincidence, I bumped into Richard, who was our guide when we were in Perth, small world after all. When you first get to the glacier, you walk into the glacial valley and see the face of the glacier, at that point the sheer size of it dawns on you as its 2kms away and still looks pretty close. To climb the glacier, you are provided with climbing boots and strap on spikes for grip. You also get a jacket in case of bad weather but you soon get rid of it as you start the climb as its physically quite hard work. I had volunteered to be in one of the fast groups, and was in the lead team up the glacier. This was good as we set a strong pace and got up the glacier pretty fast so we could spend longer at the top.

As the glacier is constantly changing the route is different every day. The guides that go up with you have pickaxes and literally carve the steps and the path as you go. There are some structures that are fairly constant such as crevices and tunnels which can be a tight squeeze. And when I say tight, there was 1 crevice that I went through and I had a very real panic that I was stuck. I managed to get through, but was wary going forward.We got to a plateau after a few hours climbing and rested for a while., It was stunning, we had good weather, a nice view and fresh glacial water from the ice, just reward for our climb. The journey down was harder as the ice had become a bit slippier, and its also hard on your knees working down the glacier but you reach the bottom, knackered but exhilarated. After my exertions earlier in the day, we headed out into town and enjoyed what nightlife there was around. There is a great little bar that did a deal on pizza's and Monteiths beer. It was a very satisfying end to a hard day. If anyone is in NZ, you should definitely try and see the glacier, it's a one of a kind opportunity (unless you go to argentina and climb the one over there J )