Monday 25th March

It is still drizzling on and off this morning so we took a walk around Queenstown - a real adventure paradise, weather permitting of course. Before lunch we decide to drive to Glenorchy about 45km away and walk around the lagoon for a couple of hours, there's a jet boat ride on offer but we would rather wait for a clear spell and tackle the Shotover River Jet Boat experience, claimed to be the worlds best.

The weather pitches up real nice in the afternoon and after our return to Queenstown we decide to go up the Gondola which is adjacent the motor home park - it's fun with spectacular views. We decline the luge as it can't be as good as the one in Rotarua.

I dilly dally with hiring a mountain bike but it's too late in the day, maybe tomorrow or the day after. Queenstown has some awesome mountain biking track though and is currnently hosting an annual mountain-biking event which seems exceptionally popular with some of the world's downhill pro's riding here.

Tuesday 25th March

Today is the long drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound - we had initially planned to fly but all the trips are premised on fly in fly out the same day with exhorbitant add-ons if you deviate from the usual (same with the coach ride), hence the decision to drive as we booked to stay overnight in Milford.

The drive is spectacular(although quite long, 5 hours with stops in total) and there are lots of photos of possible Lord of the Rings sets to be had everywhere. The hand carved tunnel is something to behold and prior to the tunnel the mail to Milford was delivered by experienced climbers!

We stop at the mirror lakes and the weather is well behaved and good shots are had, there are also several other spots to walk and view cascading waterfalls and such and we make the most of them on the way.

Milford Sound town itself is very small, but there are several ferry trips around the sound (actually it is a fjord and not a sound) and we choose the breakfast one the next morning. The afternoon is spent walking around and taking photos and Irish stew at the local pub with a couple of pints of Murphy's sees us off to bed relatively early.

Wednesday 27th March

The "early" morning cruise departs at 9am and the weather is idyllic, some small "land of the long white cloud" clouds about. We see seals and dolphins and visit the underwater observatory. Interestingly, Captain Cook missed this sound or fjord twice when he sailed past, leaving it to a later sealer to find and name it.

We pick up a young lady cyclist looking for a lift from Milford to Te Anua - I helped her load her bike into our camper can - admiration is all I can say, that thing was damned heavy and the mountain passes she came through to get to Milford, well let's say her legs should have been twice the size!

The weather is beautiful all the way back to Queenstown and we expect it to continue for a few days - yippee! We are back in time to go on the Shotover Jet-boat ride on the Shotover River / Gorge and it is as spectacular as promised. Good adrenalin ride and the scenery is spectacular. The pilot of the boat is extremely skilled and those boats are amazingly powerful - two V8 engines! Good, clean fun!

Tonight is spaghetti bolognaise - yippee again!