Waking up in Queenstown Friday morning, we had been expecting sunshine but it was instead cloudy and a bit windy. We took this as our cue to roll on. We continued our drive on Highway 6 and headed south, first to Te Anau, and onwards to the Fjordland National Park. We stopped about 20 minutes outside Te Anau at a great campground, Henry's Creek. It was on the beach of Lake Te Anau and had the first campsites we've seen that have been in the trees like at home, instead of in an open grassy field (or worse, a gravel parking lot!). We had a quick lunch, took in the views of the lake, and headed back up the road. We also stopped at to see the Mirror Lakes - some small lakes along the road that reflect the tall mountains of the fjords on a still day. Well, the day wasn't still but they were still beautiful and had great baby ducks in them!

The scenery all along the road towards Milford is spectacular, great mountains, some with snow still lingering, and lots of wide open valleys from which to appreciate them. We stopped for the night at Cascade Creek campground, another fairly basic DOC campground. It had a nice short hike around Lake Gunn which brought us through a mossy, green, regenerating beech forest and out to the edge of the lake. Our campsite at this spot was not fully in the woods but was nicely sheltered under a great tree on a small creek. Also, it's the first campsite we've had that has allowed campfires! We were so pumped! Camping is great but we've been missing our night time fires. It was definitely an effort with all the wet logs around, but Mark did have it going for a good while.

We got up early Saturday morning and made the rest of the drive to Milford Sound. The road leading up to Cascade creek where we camped had been pretty tame, but the rest of the hour to Milford was definitely more intense. Apparently, we were there at the right time - if it had have been 2 days sooner (right up until the end of November) we still would've needed snow chains on our tires. It was a fairly narrow, winding road, which included a very long tunnel through a mountain. And the tunnel was steeply downhill and very dark! After the tunnel, one more switchback road lead us into Milford Sound. The views on this crazy road just kept getting more and more beautiful, but nothing compared to what was waiting for us in Milford. Gorgeous! The steep, jagged peaks dropped right off into the deep, dark water.

We hopped on a boat and took a cruise of the sound. It brought us all the way out to the Tasman Sea and showed us some great views along the way. I could never properly describe it - you'll just have to come and see it for yourself. Probably to this date the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Although we saw a few waterfalls along the way, apparently there would've been more if it had've been raining. We were happy for the dry weather to be able to sit out on the outside deck and soak it all in.

Heading back down the Milford road after the cruise, we stopped to see "The Chasm" which is a waterfall that has craved crazy looking shapes into the rocks around it. It has gone deep into the rockface because of it's enormous power.

We also stopped for an afternoon hike to Lake Marian. It walked us beside a giant waterfall, and then up, up, up a smaller mountain through an old beech forest until we came to Lake Marian, an isolated lake in a mountain valley. Stunning and so wonderful, because again, we were the only ones there to take it all in. The hike back down was a bit more challenging because it rained fairly steadily but it wasn't terrible, and we were half-expecting the change in weather.

Soaked, we packed back into the van and headed back south. We camped for the night back at Henry's Creek - we were just so pumped to be camping in a proper forest!

This morning, we headed back through to Queenstown and again that city drew us in! We had to have another Fergburg! And this time we didn't have to skydive to get it! Seriously, such a HUGE and tasty chicken burger. We ate it down by the harbour and enjoyed the afternoon sun. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving up to Lake Tekapo, more in the middle of the South Island. We arrived here around dinner time. It is a lake set in the moutains (I know, same old, same old, and yet, still love it!) that has some glacial sediment in it causing it to be a brilliant turquoise colour. We're going to spend the day bopping around here tomorrow and hope to enjoy the activities the area has to offer - hot springs, biking, possible rollerskating (!!!) and star gazing.