January 29th

So we got up fairly early and headed to the supermarket and stocked up on food and petrol for the trip to Milford Sound as there are no shops up there. So we set off - our first stop was Lake Mistletoe, this was a small glacial lake so we went for a walk around it. It was really pretty but nowhere near as impressive as some of the other lakes we have seen in New Zealand. Plus about the last 1k of the walk was on the road.Another 30k's up the road we stopped at the Mirror Lakes, called so due to their mountain reflections on a calm day. It was quite a shame because as we got there it started to rain but we still got a few nice pictures. The worst part was just about to begin and that was the Sandflies!! They arre like little Devils and as we would soon find out they only got alot worse the further we went up. We then got to Lake Gunn which is the final camp spot you can camp at before Milford Sound still another 40k away. So we parked up right by the lake. After getting out for only a couple of minutes we were swarmed by sandflies - and despite wearing loads of insect repellant they were just non-stop. So we all hibernated in our van for a good hour doing sudoku's and crosswords. We got bored so decided to drive further on, we stopped at Lake Marian, it was getting quite late by now so we decided not to do the 3 hour walk to the lake and just stick to the short one 20 minutes to the lookout. The Rivers were stunning, the water was so blue and it was so fast going over the rocks - we got some really nice pictures. The flies were still non stop and as it was getting dark we headed back. We had only been gone about 2 hours yet the camping area was practically full and everyone was being inconsiderate with how they parked and stuff making it awkward for other people to park up.So we ended up basically parked in a tree on a really muddy patch. We were all by this point getting mightily annoyed with the sandflies - so resorted to having a few beers while Sara cooked and delicious Spag Bol.It was an earlish night as we had to leave early to get to Milford Sound in time for the cruise.

January 30th
As we started the 40k drive up to Milford we realised how beautiful the scenery truly was it was Mountain after mountain some still with snow on top and Waterfalls cascading down the side. The only thing that could have been better was the weather. It was grey very cloudy and raining - apparently they hadn't had rain in 7 days which is a long time in Milford considering they get 7m a year so we couldn't have chose a worse day. It was still stunning though, the cruise was 2 hours and took us all along the sound passed waterfalls, seals and mountains and Mitre Peak. The skipper told us abut the history of it - which was nice and informative. We went all the way out to the Tasman Sea and then came back along the other side of the Sound - which was just as picturesque - we took lots of pictures but they don't really show how beautiful it was because there was so much cloud and mist. When we were on our way back we jumped off at the underwater observatory. It was really interesting and quite cool as the glass was made so that all the fish and coral actually looked he right size rather than magnified - like when you go diving. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary but it was nice to lear about all the sea life in Milford. We then hopped back on the boat to the mainland. The rain contuned to get worse and worse so we decided to just get out of Milford and drive to Queenstown (300k away). We did rally enjoy Milford Sound, just nothing can prepare you for the sandflies and i still have 15 bites despite wearing enough insect repellant to kill a small mammal.It took us about 4 hours to get to Queenstown - the drive was pretty dull as half of it was roads we had driven before. Queenstown is so pretty though like a proper little holiday town - it is clean and very busy. We all loved it from when we first got here, probs due to the fact that it was raining and there were no flies. We checked into a campsite (sooo expensive) and showered. So nice to be clean asnd wash off all of the insect repellant. We then headed out to the town for some Dinner we were absolutely starving as we hadn't really eaten all day. In the end we found a lovely irish pub and sat out in the garden over looking the lake and the mountains. Was lovely and the food was delicious. The boys headed to the Casino (just to have a look apparently) while me and Sara had a wander round the town. We found the best sweet shop in the world which does free fudge tastings - i was in heaven!! Sara spent a small fortune on a variety of sweets but we had fun. In the end the boys won some money so all was good - we then headed back for an early night.

We have already booked a Canyone Swing for 5:30pm this afternoon - quite scary, its a bit like a bunjy jump but you have a harness and it freefalls you 60m then you swing in a 200m arc. Looks pretty good - so im sure we will be back on the blogs writing about that tomorrow. Also going to check out the Gonadala and Luge in a bit and me, Ed and Sara are thinking about doing a paraglide in the morning. Yay

Hope everyone is well - Take Care and Lots of Love x x x