Starting in Te Anau I got the bus to Milford Sound for the cruise around the fiord. The scenery on the way is certainly spectacular, although filled with busloads of tourists, but because the weather had been unusually dry the waterfalls weren't that plentiful. Apparently when it has been raining, the place takes on a beauty of its own. Despite that, Milford Sound is a stunning place and the free buffet lunch I had beforehand was pretty good too. Always take advantage of free food. Always. The whole place is just big. Mountains rise out of the sea with steep peaks and waterfalls crash down everywhere, including Stirling Falls which is the highest permanent waterfall in New Zealand. I got a bit wet as the boat went right up close to it, but it was worth it!

Next stop was the underwater observatory. Now to cut a long story short, because of all the crap that gets washed down into the sea from the plants, the ocean gets a lot darker just a few metres below. This means it's like deep sea conditions which mean that deep sea life thrives just a little below the surface. So they built a big underwater observatory to see black coral (which is actually white) and other deep sea life. Pretty cool. Then we were on our way home to Queenstown with Dodgeball to entertain us on the two hour journey. A few quiet beers and I was dead to the world.

I fannied around a lot the next day as it was raining for a bit, then I thought it'd be best to climb to the top of the gondola and try the luge up there. Before I got there I found that Corina (from Australia) was around so I caught up with her. She was dull and didn't want to do luging, but I joined a fellow westcountry girl at the top after a horribly steep climb. Luging was pretty fun, then it was back to town for a Big Night Out. This is basically a big bar crawl with what turned out to be a load of Calafornians. At some point at the end of the night I was dancing on a bar and spilled my beer over some girl when getting down. I tried to offer her a drink once I'd washed, but she'd disappeared. So in a way I think I won...

I awoke the next day at 12:30pm, which is the latest I've woken up in about a year. I did almost nothing, watching TV with some Essex boys and going for a drink in the evening. It was actually great. I also said goodbye to Fergburger in style with the Big Al - their biggest burger, the size of my head - and while doing so I met Alice. She went to my middle school and I last saw her when she was nine! We had a drink after her work, and after I'd polished off Big Al with panache. My mum sort of became a cult hero as it was revealed that she has sorted almost every contact that I potentially have in New Zealand and she's the only reason I knew Alice existed. Funny old world...!