Ok, so its summer in New Zealand. Yes its even summer in South Island, New Zealand and I would go as far as saying its mid summer in Te Anau in Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand that is exactly where we are. SO what is SNOW doing on the tops of the mountains? Why is it 10 degrees? Why do the locals all complain that this is the coldest summer on record?

They are confused, so are we! But we are here to do the daytrip to Doubtful Sound. A Fjiord that we were told was a major reason to visit the South Island, something that couldnt be missed.

We head off by coach from our Hotel at 10am to Lake Manapouri where we board a large tour boat to take us across the lake for 45 minutes. There are only 4 of us at this point, as we are picking up more travellers who arrived earlier to do the Power Staion tour as well. The weather is doubtful! A little blue sky, but mainly grey, and loads of low cloud. Perhaps not the best we could have wished for, but we are in the hands of the weather gods and have no say in the matter.

We now have to travel by coach for 40 minutes through a very wet rain forest, as its been raining for 18 hours (they have something silly like 10 - 20 feet of water a year!!!) There are huge waterfalls along the way, enormous umbrella palms and trees and shrubs at every angle. Beautiful, but wet!

On arrival to the edge of Doubtful we board our cruise boat, our home for the next 3 hours and depart into the low cloud that surrounds us. We have an amazing time. The waterfalls that have formed with all the rain are terrific. We are lucky to see an odd fur seal, some yellow crested Penguins and a few blue Penguins feeding and playing in the water. Its pouring of rain at times but it doesnt seem to spoil our enjoyment at all. Just one more splendid highlight on our trip through N.Z.

PS
What Liz has omitted to say is that en route she was stopped by the police for speeding. Her driving licence details were taken and th penalty system explained. What then followed was a master class of which Dame Judi Dench would have been proud. She started sobbing....saying how sorry she was......so effectively that the police officer finally relented saying she was sure she wouldn't do it again and that she would let her off. I had my head in the boot putting away the licences, by now creased up. Love to all...P