We left Queenstown at 6am for Milford Sound. The bus all morning was very quiet and subdued – I think it was a combination of the beers the night before and then 5:30am alarm clocks!! We stopped in a place called Te Anau for breakfast before heading further down the road and into the Fiordland National Park. I know we have kept going on about how amazing this place looks but Fiordland National Park was something else – seems to get more and more stunning the further South we go. Fiorland is a World Heritage Site and was just unbelievable looking. The huge snowfalls the past few days only made it better. We drove along the windy roads between the enormous Southern Alps and just couldn’t take our eyes off the mountains!

We got to Milford Sound after a couple of other scenic stops along the way at around lunchtime. Milford Sound is a huge Fiord which was created by a glacier cutting through the mountains. We were booked onto a cruise to take a trip through it – this was one of the things in NZ that we had been really looking forward to after seeing photos of it in our guide books. We cruised through it for a couple of hours….once again we had got perfect weather which is unusual for Milford Sound as it rains 250 + days a year here and had been closed for the past 9 days!! The mountains and sea cliffs were enormous – everything is so big it is hard to appreciate how massive the cliffs are but we got an idea when we pulled up beside one and the guide announced that it was over twice the height of the empire state building in New York – rather tall!!! It got a bit rougher once we got out past the headland into the Tasman Sea but we weren’t out there for long…….we have previously discussed my poor sea legs so I wasn’t disappointed to get back into the calmer waters again!! The cruise was excellent but we got an added bonus once again on our way back in to the jetty! A pod of Dolphins came to meet us for the last 5 minutes – we have been so lucky on these boat trips – flippin’ Dolphin Magnets we are!!

Next stop was our camp for the night – Gunn’s Camp. We had been previously told that this was without a doubt the coldest place we would go (we had both bought hot water bottles in preparation!) and when we arrived it seemed people were right! Gunn’s Camp was built to house workers who built one of the roads through the Southern Alps. A selection of wooden cabins was our digs for the night which from the outside looked pretty poor but once inside it was actually pretty cosy (thanks Joe!!) We had 6 in our cabin and with our own coal fire in the centre going great guns after a while it was warm as toast!! It was great not having a TV in the common room as we all sat around the log fire chatting all night, proper old school! We had a group dinner that night – bangers and mash. I was in charge of the bangers - have to say it was a new experience standing over a BBQ with 5 layers on and the temp dropping close to zero never mind trying not to burn about 60 sausages!! Finished up with desert of smores cooked over the open fire – excellent! All in all it turned out well and truth be told it was a nice break from Pasta or noodles plus the group dinners are always good for getting to know people a bit better! We took a walk to the glowworm caves down the road which were fairly unimpressive – unimpressive that is compared to the sky! The stars were AMAZING – maybe the brightest we have seen – it would be a toss up between this and Maya Beach in Thailand! Luckily one of the guys on our trip has a super camera and got some snaps which shows what we mean – have a look!!

We didn’t stay up too late as all the power on the site was running off a generator which was due to go off at 10pm. Luckily a small solar light in the cabin gave us enough to get ready for bed without falling over each other!! We discussed a schedule for getting up during the night to keep the fire lit……but it didn’t quite work out! Luckily we had Jan the amazing German to get up at 6am and light the fire so it was toasty for us getting up – thanks Jan – you’re a legend, we may have frozen without you!!!

Off to Invercargill next, one of the most southerly towns on the south island! No doubt it’ll be cold there too!!

Craig and Laura = )