(Milford) Sounds good to me!

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I know it's not like us to be so quick with the blogs but who knows, this might be the beginning of more regular updates...doubt it though.

We've just got back from a couple of days in and around Milford but before I talk about that, I'll quickly mention what we've done since the last entry.

Pretty much straight after finishing the blog we got in the van and drove down to a place called Bluff. Although it's not the most southernly point, it's referred to as such by a lot of New Zealanders and it's known as the 'Lands End' of New Zealand. It comes complete with a signpost giving the distances to various different countries around the world - London was the furthest away. Bluff is also the place you get ferries to Stewart Island from. We decided not to make the trip across and had to settle for seeing it from a lookout. We then headed back up to Invercargill and spent a few minutes sampling the beer in the world's most southernly mcirobrewery before continuing north.

The road north loosely follows the edge of the Fiordland National Park. We drove into the park a little at Lake Hauroko and spent a bit of time there walking up to a lookout - a very steep walk through the forest - and then continued up to Te Anau in time to catch the Melbourne Cup, over which people down here go crazy. It's a bit like the Grand National but nowhere near as long. We both had a little flutter but didn't win (my horse came second but I had bet to win). It then snowed.

The next day, after trying one of the local venison pies, we decided to head up into the National Park again and make our way to Milford Sound. We had to hire some snow chains but thankfully the roads weren't bad and we didn't have to use them.

After spending the night near Milford Sound (named Milford by a guy originally from Milford Haven and actually a fiord) we booked ourselves on to an early morning cruise. It was pretty impressive and it looked all the better for having snow everywhere. We stopped off at the underwater observatory - an observatory 8 metres under the surface of the water where, because of the conditions in the fiord, you can see things which normally occur at up to 500 metres deep.

After a few hours out on the fiord it was time to start making our way back to Te Anau (there's only one 120km road in to and out of Milford) stopping to do a walk up to Key Summit on our way. We spent last night just outside Te Anau and arrived back in town this morning.

Queenstown next...but first I think I might have another pie.

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Photos

Keas
These little buggers were trying to rip the rubber off cars - thankfully, this wasn't our van