Milford Sound
The road to Milford winds up and through the mountains, so a lot colder than Queenstown, manoeuvring the campervan through ice and snow was a little scary!! The weather was awful but did make the sound look misty and mysterious, apparently this is a great time to see the Milford Sound as the waterfalls are at their most spectacular which they were! First night was at the small and remote campsite but unfortunately resembled a building site as they were re-directing the river and all the workmen and their diggers were our neighbours, so after a very quick drink after dinner at the local cafe which turns in to a bar at night and a game of darts if you can call it that we headed back in the rain to our construction/campsite!! We decided the next day to not only go on a boat cruise during the day but also an overnight cruise.....we didn't really fancy another night on the construction site! Both trips were fantastic, the sound is part of the New Zealand fiordland and it is truly spectacular. The evening cruise started with 'cocktail hour' followed by dolphin spotting from the deck of the boat! At dinner we were seated at a table with 3 South African friends ...... Few bottles of wine later and the pictures tell the story, a fantastic evening on the Milford Mariner!!!

The weather worsened overnight and the mountain road that takes you to and from Milford was closed! So at breakfast the captain informed us that if the road doesn't open we could all stay on the boat as long as we needed to, they had plenty of food and booze as a big coach tour couldn't make it the day before due to the weather conditions, this excited us a bit as we were up for a lengthened stay on the Milford Mariner!! But the road did open and we were on our way, unfortunately we has a bit of a journey on our hands as we were sadly leaving New Zealand in a couple of days and we had a lot of ground to cover .... And we were slightly hungover!

Road to Christchurch
A quick stop in Dunedin overnight quickly visiting the steepest street in the world ... Of course Mike wanted to take the campervan up it, slightly frightening experience but we managed it! Then along the coast to the Mouraki boulders which were very cool and on to Christchurch. After the earthquake earlier in the year the city centre was completely ruined, so they are currently in the process of demolishing it ... It's called the 'red zone' and you can't get anywhere near it, so didn't get to see much of Christchurch at all. We reluctantly handed back our van, very sad to say goodbye to our home for the last 18 days. We drowned our sorrows at an airport hotel before an early start and the next leg of our adventure.....Australia!!!