We'll be coming round the mountains.Somewhere between Invercargill and Te Anu the landscape changed and we entered the land of mountains. The scenery was stunning even in the variable weather and Morag thought that at last she had found the 'real' New Zealand.We debated hard and long about the cost of the 'big trip'- taking the boat across Lake Manapouri to the power station and then a bus across this weird bit of hill road in the middle of nowhere which joins the lake to the top of Doubtful Sound, then a long boat trip down the sound (the longest of the sounds in Fiordland) but economics came into the equation and we opted for a long drive north with a much shorter boat trip through Milford Sound. We had our first sand-fly experience on the journey- nippy little b*****s- but once bitten not much itching and I thought 'this is ok' 'not much effect'- how wrong can you be!!I just had to wait.We drove higher and higher into the mountains till we were above the tree line and stopped off a couple of times at viewpoints. The car parks invariably had their resident pair of Kias- big, cheeky but rather endangered parrots. They happily jumped on the car roof and would have stripped the rubber from around the car windows given half a chance but we fed them bits of banana and pear and got some marvellous photos of them eating out of Kezz's hand. We then read the notice which explained that humans feeding them left the parrots ill prepared for life in the wild- well, this lot of birds (and humans) were obviously ignoring the Department of Conservation's advice. Not far from Milford the road goes through a long tunnel blasted through the middle of the mountain- about a kilometre long- with a fifteen minute wait at the traffic lights either end- enough time to pop out and have a picnic while you are waiting on the lights changing- can you imagine it!!We saw Milford Sound through the gloom- very overcast- but still spectacular- hugely high sheer mountains rising up either side. One of the benefits of the weather was that the waterfalls were spectacular. We loved every minute of the trip and stayed out on the top deck- even when the 'driver' was 'accidentally' taking us too near a waterfall. We saw lots of seals but unfortunately no dolphins. Next day we headed to Queenstown in even heavier rain-you could barely see across the road never mind the Remarkables. Another gloom set in -Morag was still getting intermittent bellyache (no comment) and had to go to bed in the afternoon. I spent the day in the shops dodging the cold and the rain but---------- we got up the next day to brilliant sunshine and heat---- summer at last. The day started with a considerable amount of snow on top of the Remarkables but one day of heat blew it away.Kezz went off searching Lord of the Ring's sites and Morag went shopping. I had seen a free Wi-Fi sign at a cafe/chocolate shop on the lakeside and I took my new laptop there. I had the most amazing hot chocolate flavoured with root ginger- and a yummy passion fruit cheesecake. A yacht with the tallest mast and a dark blue sail came into the jetty under sail. I sat there watching the world go by thinking that this was more like it!!Kezz came back from his LOTR search and asked if us 'girls' would like to go for a 'run' in the evening. With an instant dinner from the local supermarket we drove up a few thousand feet to the Remarkable's ski centre- on an unmade road of course- with no crash barriers, with Kezz driving. (Though he did keep his rallying skills to a minimum) The views were stunning but by the time we reached the top I wasn't so sure I wanted to eat my dinner. I had to keep remembering that in the winter, bus loads of skiers came up and down this road-- in the snow!! Following the Lord of the Rings trail we headed up through Glenorchy and into beech forest where some of the scenes were filmed. The road was a little rougher this time and we crossed lots of fords. Kezz took great delight in making as big a splash as possible. Later that day we discovered we were missing a piece of the front grille on the car- probably left behind in Hobbit land!Onwards and northwards- we had a long drive through some of the most stunning mountain scenery in wonderful sunny weather to spend Christmas at the bottom of the Franz Joseph Glacier.