Today it was time to leave Invercargill, after 4 nights! We drove into town to stock up on groceries, petrol, and to use the internet in the I-Site before hitting the road towards Fiordland National Park. As we still have over 5 weeks left in NZ, we decided to take our time, and headed towards a campsite about 100km away.

We made a few stops along the way - a fishing village called Cosy Nook, and a beach where you can dig for gemstones! We didn't find any gems, unfortunately, but there were a few people there who seemed to be serious about it!

We finally arrived at the site - a 'Basic' DOC site on Lake Monowai. The lake was very pretty, but we weren't very impressed with the site - smelly toilets and lots of sand flies everywhere - but it was free! Really free this time, not 'we forgot to pay' free.

As I had a headache, we stayed in the van rather than exploring a bit more. We kept ourselves entertained by listening to the rugby on the radio. Cooking was an interesting experience, as we had to fight off the sand flies (with a teatowel) while trying to cook! Welcome to Fiordland!