Hi from Queenstown again!

Milford Sound was next on the agenda after our last blog. On the way we passed through the Fiordland National Park & Homer Tunnel, which was handmade & very long & steep - impressive stuff. The valley of a Thousand Waterfalls greeted us on the other side - beautiful little falls on both sides of the valley as we decended into Milford Sound. We were lucky enough to witness an avalanche on one of the valley slopes - good view of it but it was nowhere near reaching the bus - phew! However there was the result of a huge landslide that happened a week before we passed through at the side of the road - piles of huge rock & fallen trees!

From the start of our Milford Sound cruise, the scenery was gorgeous, we spent the trip into the sound outside on the upper deck to take in all the views which was really cool but extremely windy! We saw Yellow Crested Penguins, an Albatross & a Sea Lion on 'Sea Lion Rock' wierdly enough! The boat took us really close to one of the waterfalls in the sound - which was nice as we got a free shower! We went all the way through the sound & into the Tasman Sea before heading back through, by which time the wind thankfully died down!

We learned that Milford Sound is actually a Fiord & not a Sound as it was created by a melting glacier rather than a river flooding the valley - every day's a school day!

We stayed in Tuatapere for the night after passing Lake Te Anau, Tutapere is apparently the 'Sausage Capital' of New Zealand - not sure of the exact reasoning...

We had an early start the next day as we were taken to Bluff for our ferry across to Stewart Island. The crossing is supposed to be one of the roughest in the world due to choppy seas, but we got lucky as the waves weren't too bad. We arrived in Half-moon bay in Oban which is in the only town on the island. We walked around 10km during the day despite the rain! On the way we checked out lots of nice bays & beaches we got good views of Ulva Island, walked accross Horseshoe Bay & Bathers Beach & saw lots of native New Zealand birds including Kias, Kakka & some Blue NZ pigeons! We also saw a Tomtit - seriously thats what they're called!

After spending the night on the island we got our return ferry back to Bluff & headed for Dunedin, via the Catlins region, which was really cool - we got really close to some Hooker Sea Lions - they are massive but dont seem to mind humans too much luckily! We stopped at Curio Bay which is a petrified forest - millions of years old & Porpoise Bay which is home to around 20 Hector Dolphins, there are only around 3-4 thousand of them left. But unfortunately we didnt see any dolphins but the beach is gorgeous. Nugget Point was our next stop to see a Yellow-eyed Penguin Colony which are the rarest breed of penguin in the world & the 3rd largest, however - no penguins! They were all out fishing apparently!

On arriving in Dunedin we took a tour of Speights brewery, which was a good laugh - the brewery has been in the same spot since the 1800s & James Speight was the 3rd major shareholder & supreme salesman, which is where the name came from - unfortunately he died from liver damage!! We saw how the beer was made & the history of brewing methods & all the raw ingredients, it is one of few gravity-fed breweries in the world. The best bit was the tasting at the end! We got about 20 minutes to down as much beer from 6 taps of all of Speight's brews - it was beautiful! We promptly grabbed 2 glasses each & one of the lads locked the tour guide out! We can confirm that the Gold Medal & Summit brews are the best! We spent the rest of the night in an Irish bar called "The Bog" where a live band played whatever we requested - nice!

Dunedin has Scottish origins & is a popular university town with some trendy bars, it is also home to the rugby stadium 'The House of Pain' where the All Blacks play most of their games. We spent the morning checking out the city, the station, cathedral, churches & Town Hall.

After Dunedin we headed back to Queenstown, stopping at the Clyde Dam which is impressive - the lake it contains is huge & provides all of the power for 3 towns. We stopped at ur favourite fruit store for another Hokey Pokey ice-cream, which is vanilla & honeycomb!

Today we have had a full day in Queenstown again which is cool as it's been our favourite town so far & its always been sunny weather! We walked to the top of Bob's Peak, from which you get the most amazing arial views of Queenstown & lake Wakatipu. Gaz went on the Luge, which is a little kart with a stop & go lever, the track is on the side of the hill. We had a nice lunch overlooking 'The Remarkables' which is the group of mountains surrounding the town & strolled back down & through the harbour.

Tomorrow is our last day with Stray :( then we have a week to chill out in Christchurch :) We'll post our next blog from there

Speak soon, take care Gaz & Hannah xxx

Ps. We have just spent all our credit trying to upload some photos for everyone but the computer keeps saying theres an error so we will have to sort out the photos in christchurch- dont worry we get to christchurch tomorrow so you wont have to wait long!x