March 27 - 29

Te Anau is a small town dwarfed by its namesake lake on one side and a mountain range on the other, and the main reason that people end up there is as a base from which to explore Milford Sound, 120km north along the Milford Sound Road.

We set up the camper at a Family Parks site, which we get for free with our Jucy Camper and spent the night drinking beer and wine and watching tv before heading to bed. The next morning(ish) we set off along The Milford Road, famous for being one of the most spectacular roads in the world, and although both of us had heard a lot about it, neither of us were prepared for what we would encounter.

The road meanders through deep valleys, carved by ancient glaciers before heading upwards into the Southern Alps. The sheer rocky faces of the mountains loomed over us and around every corner was a new picture-postcard photo opportunity. We had to stop ourselves from filling up the camera with images that will never do justice to the majesty of the surroundings - it's easy to see why Peter Jackson filmed The Lord of The Rings in New Zealand, it IS Middle Earth, and we both agreed it was possibly the most amazing sight we had seen on our travels so far. We stopped at the Mirror Lakes which, as the name suggests, reflect the mountains above perfectly in the crystal clear glacial water. The perfect silence was broken only by a crazy Kiwi guy who kept going mental telling his dogs off who he left in the car on the road above us!

The road soon reaches a point where it can climb no more and so what you can't go over or under you must go through, which is where the Homer Tunnel comes in. The tunnel was carved by hand through the rocks by an army of workers during the depression, and it still retains it 'rustic' feel, with jagged walls and streams running down the surfaces.

We eventually reached Milford Sound (technically a Fjord FYI!) and set off on our Cruise which we'd got half price thanks again to Jucy! The Sound is difficult to describe in words, so i'm not going to try - just imagine mountains, waterfalls, crystal clear lakes and the most clear, crisp air you'll ever inhale. It was truly inspiring and I had to thank Janine for persuading me to come out here to the other side of the world to experience it.

We stopped on the way back at a huge hole that is unimaginatively titled 'The Chasm' (ask Janine how to pronounce this word, it's hilarious!). The glacial rivers fall into the earth and have taken many trees with them, it's pretty cool.