My alarm went off at 6.30am, I felt knackered! We tried to dress inside in Campervan and climb awkwardly over to the front drivers and passenger seats to avoid having to leave the car due to the horrendous about of sand flies. After I cocked my leg up over the high bar in between the bed in the back and the passenger seat, I flopped down the other side to find a man staring at me do so from outside of my window. I opened the door a smidge just to see what he wanted. He told me he was from the DOC council and that we owed 26 dollars for staying the night! What an absolute rip off. We arrived at 11pm and left at 6.40am, used the toilet once and owe 26 dollars! Part of me wondered if he was legitimate, but when he gave us a very authentic looking receipt in exchange for the payment, there wasn't a lot more I could do.

30 minutes later, we arrived at Manapouri Harbour. The night before on our drive from Glenorchy to Te Ano, we were driving along chatting away- not able to listen to any music as radio signals don't reach most places of the west coast, and it started to rain, or so we thought. We soon realised it wasn't rain and it was hundreds of bugs being splattered against our windscreen when we saw a watery brown fluid running down the sides, and the windscreen wipers didn't make any difference in cleaning our screen. This morning, hundreds of bug bodies were covering the front of our camper. That was going to be a bummer to clean once the sun had been on it later today!

We used the public toilets to freshen up before our Doubtful Sound cruise. I was really excited, I love a boat ride!

We picked up our included pack lunch from the cafe and boarded the cruiser. We had a 50 minute cruise through the first part of the sound, then a 40 minute coach ride to the last boat that takes you all the way through the outer sound to the entrance where the it meets the Tasmanian Ocean.

There was only 21 people that had booked onto the tour that could take over 100, which they said was particularly rare but much better for us. The company 'Real Journeys' and one other company are the only two that have concessions to provide tours of Doubtful Sounds, therefore you are the only boat on the water at that time which obviously gives a much better quality experience. Also, because of the terrain of the surrounding mountains, no buildings have been built so everything we saw was completely natural with no commercialism for miles, which is rare with tourist attractions.

The whole tour was extremely educational which wouldn't usually be something I'm excited about in all honesty- I prefer activities, but I was loving all the nature information they were giving us.

They informed us about some of the history of New Zealand. A man called Captain James Cook and his crew, sailed from Britain in the 1767 on a large ship until they reached New Zealand two years later. He sailed around the coastline of New Zealand and put it on the map. At that time, Maori tribes were living on the land, along with birds and insects. The only native mammals to New Zealand were 3 species of bats, 2 of which are still in existence. All the other mammals now present in New Zealand were brought over on big ships by the Europeans. The guide also told us that nothing really in New Zealand is exotic or can kill you, only sandflies which will just annoy you.

Now I'd never heard of a 'sound' before and had no idea what it was, but I now know it's a large and wide inlet (bigger than a bay) from the sea, parallel to the coastline. They did inform us that Doubtful Sound is actually a Fiord but they rather embarrassingly named it wrong. A Fiord is a is a long and narrow inlet with steep sides and cliffs, created by a Glacier erosion. On realising this, rather than changing the name, they put is small letters underneath, The Fiord Land. Genius! The reason it was called Doubtful Sound is because when Captain James Ford and his men wanted to take shelter on the land inside the sound after 2 years of sailing, Mr Cook said no as he wasn't sure if they would be able to get back out again due to the wind direction, therefore called it Doubtful Harbour.

The weather on the day was pretty overcast but the crew on board were informing us that we were really very lucky it wasn't raining. The weather along the west coast, as we now know, is notoriously bad and unpredictable, and it rains approximately 2 out of 3 days in Doubtful Sound. Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, initially wanted to film on the surrounding islands but was unable to because it continually rained. It rained constantly everyday for 3 months while he waited and eventually gave up.

After our 5 hour tour which was really very good, we arrived back at the harbour. It was only 3pm so we were keen to move on to our next destination, Dunedin. After refuelling Jimi, we set off on our 3 and a half hour journey.

We arrived in Dunedin a tad tired and hungry so we parked the camper in free spaces on the outskirts of town and walked into the centre. At the Octagon (town centre), there were plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from. Dunedin is the home of one of New Zealand's biggest university's so it very much has a student vibe about it. The restaurants were still very pricey for a travellers budget though! As we were looking and feeling a bit scruffy, we picked a wholesome looking burger bar where we sat and made the most of the free wifi. The burgers were great but no where near Fergburger standard. We picked up some desert and headed back to the camper in search of a campsite. On my CamperMate app, we found a cheap site at Wingatui racecourse. It was 10 dollars a night with clean toilets which is always a massive perk. I would sleep well tonight.