We freedom camped just outside Te Anau, so drove into the town in the morning to figure out our next move. We had planned to go to Doubtful Sounds but after asking at the information centre we discovered that you had to book a tour to go there as you had to get two ferries and a coach. Instead, we drove up to Milford Sounds, driving along one of the most scenic roads in the country (according to the Lonely Planet). We stopped off at some 'mirror lakes' and then went up to Milford along the windy road that slowly makes its way up a mountain. When we got there we headed straight for the wharf where our cruise was departing from and boarded the boat. It was a 135 minute cruise around the fiord (it's called a sound but is actually a fiord- fun fact) with commentary and a history of the place (where I learnt about fiords). There was also free tea and coffee, which we took full advantage of. As there had been a bit of a storm last week, there were loads of waterfalls which the boat went right under, so if you were standing outside, you'd get soaked. We sailed right out to the Tasman Sea and were lucky enough to see some penguins on the way. As we drank our tenth cup of tea, Grace saw a young boy get to sit in the Captain's chair, inspired by this, she asked for a go and we now have a very tourist-y picture of us gathered around a chair. The cruise was alright but once you've seen one giant rock face, the others aren't that interesting, I feel as though I'm not appreciating all the awesome things I'm seeing now as there is so much of it over here!
Once we'd finished in Milford we had to drive back up to Queenstown, stopping just outside so that we didn't have to pay for the night.