Helloo!

So we left Arrowtown and headed for Te Anau which is on the way to Milford Sound. Its about 150k from Arrowtown although for NZ its on major roads - so there's tarmac and only a hundred or so bends. We stopped briefly for lunch and then again in Te Anau for food supplies before heading up to the Milford Camp sites. We settled on one about half way between the two places (you can't stay at Milford in a van . . .) we stayed the night and tried to fend of the swarms of Sand Flies (evil little b*****s.)

So yesterday morning we got up and headed the last 70k to Milford Sound. It took a good few hours because we kept stopping to take photos of the stunning scenery. when we arrived the weather had cleared up for us so we booked ourselves onto an afternoon boat trip round the fiord. We saw huge waterfalls, massive mountains, and best of all wild fur seals - they are soooooo fluffy! I want one.

The boat trip was nice and relaxing and we know a lot more about the fiords now . . . on the way back to the camp site we stopped to walk out to 'the Chasm' and got stalked through the car park by a local Kea bird intent on stealing our stuff - they are quite big baulshy things! The 'Chasm' was a huge roaring forest waterfall formed by erosion by falling rocks. Very cool.

So we headed back to the camp site for stew and bread and butters. Spent the evening soaking up all the quiet countryside before heading back to the real world again today. This morning we got in the van and drove back to Te Anau on not enough petrol (just made it . . . ) then back to Queenstown. There we filed up and drop across the massive mountain rangeto get to Wanaka.

Were going to start heading north tommorow.

Bye x Mrs P