...I wake up and conclude it's good I still have some dry clothes for the last day....I run out of gas because I had thought mistakenly huts were equipped with cookers (other national parks sometimes do have cookers in huts) so only lukewarm tea and no warm breakfast...I set out, trying to use my ziplock bags to protect everything fragile inside my pack as I have no rain cover anymore...weather is not too bad and drizzle is light while the wind is not very st...

...I wake up in the empty hut as Mark&Kelly slowly clamber from their tent into my humble abode to make some tea and breakfast...I set out with them towards the Gillespie Pass and after an hour our ways part as they turn towards Lake Crucible and I soldier on...weather becomes wetter and wetter as I climb the relentless pass. Visibility is ok-ish but foggy and merciless drizzle combined with brutal wind makes me completely wet. Despite everything gore Tex and ski...

...I learn that the river I'm supposed to ford to start my trail in the Mt Aspiring National Park is high due to heavy rains so I opt for the swanky option of taking a helicopter to take me to the first hut...the 25m scenic flight over glaciers, valleys, rainforests and lakes leaves me speechless - I don't have the best seat but it is still superb...I leave my stuff at the hut and try to do a day hike to a nearby lake but the first big stream I meet seems...

...after another short walk around town I conclude that the whole area is overrun by Scots and Irishmen (I mean people working in bars and sales staff)...I post some more postcards and notice that this time both he mailbox and the stamps have a different postal service name on them. Must be a South Island thing. Glad that I put those in Auckland into the correct box!...I go to the Visitors Center to buy two tickets for huts in about to spend the night during my u...

...I wonder why locals call campsites "holiday parks"...for the first time I see the Fergburger empty! It is at 6am but still :)...I go on a trip to Milford Sound, New Zealand's most famed attraction. It's the world's second rainiest place so I'm not expecting pretty weather...indeed it's grey most of the time but at least there is hardly any rain and the way there is very scenic - it's five hours by bus from Queenstown to the sound. The d...