After giving our feet a chance to recover from our 3-day Routeburn tramp, we headed off to Doubtful Sound for a spot of kayaking. Doubtful is the shy cousin of glamorous superstar Milford Sound. The only way to get there is by taking a 40 minute boat ride over lake Manapouri and then a 20 minute bus journey over an unsealed service road. Once we got there we had the massive fjord to ourselves as we paddled along all day watching birds and fish in the dappled sunshine. And there was tea with biscuits.

Yesterday we jetboated. We went with Waiatoto River Safaris - where learning and adrenalin come together. On the ride we would pull up somewhere along the river where our driver and guide John would reel off some fascinating information about whatever it was we we happened to be looking at. Si and I would nod and ask deeply insightful and intelligent questions. John answered our questions then he gunned the engine and scared the absolute pants off me by aiming straight for a rock or something at approximately lightspeed and waiting until the last possible minute before turning.

On top of that the engine went "crunch" in a pretty spectacular way on our way home. John asking Si to drive the boat a bit and then all three of us abandoning ship to be picked up by John's wife on a dirt track somewhere along the river. First time it's happened to them apparently - gutted! Hope whatever went crunch wasn't too expensive.

Today we saw kiwi birds being raised as part of a breeding program to boost numbers. Fascinating fact: a kiwi bird's egg makes up 20% of the mother's mass just before it's laid.
Ouch.