It was a rainy day but still spectacular!

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We were the last camper in the lay by - the usual!!! We usually depart late morning after a lazy lay in and breakfast and the much needed cuppa tea! have missed cups of tea...too much of a fath in a hostel! So we made our way to Milford Sound, it's one way there and one way back so had to do it in a day really. Lots to see on the way as u can see from the photos....it was 120kms and we stopped at Te Anau Downs, Mirror Lakes, reflections of Earl Mountains, beech forest & wetlands, Knobs Flat, Lake Gunn where we did the Nature Walk (the photos of all the trees covered in moss,) Homer Tunnel 1200m rock hewn tunnel - just to name a few of the good ones.....there was a point of interest on our map to Milford Sound, it said that you could do a 200m 'easy' walk to some waterfalls, which we thought would be cool...however our camper is very slow and is NOT 4 wheel drive!! we may have driven too far into the woods and then i had to do a 15 point turn on a very precarious slope....bad times....did the embarassing Dan directing me as i turned the Jucy round on a very un-made road!!!! Was interesting...and as it turned out the pathway to the waterfall was closed and no longer maintain! After all that!!!! Think the panic had set in when it wouldn't go anywhere in drive...but we reversed and turned it and was all fine...both later agreed to stay on the major roads....hehe. U can just imagine it i bet!! The WheelerBudds causing trouble.

Making our way to Milford Sound was amazing, going through the mountains and clouds on windy roads and the rain was pouring....but it was cool cause when it rains there are thousands of waterfalls from the mountain tops. We (by the skin of our teeth) made it to the harbour where we picked up our cruise...was great to get close to the waterfalls and even saw New Zealand Seals. Milford Sound is actually a lie as a Sound is what is formed from river erosion but Milford Sound was actually formed from Glaciers so it is a Fiord. The boat took us right out to the Tasman Sea. Again we parked up in the lay-by on the way back from Milford Sound, the next day it was pure blue skies and sunshine...shame we didnt see Milford Sound in that but then again maybe it wouldnt look as mysterious and wouldn't see many waterfalls.

The next stop was Queenstown, the most happening place in New Zealand I would say...lots of extreme sports, the cable cars and the town was good to stroll round. We arrived in the afternoon and as soon as i saw the cable cars I told Dan that we were going on them!!!! Managed to drag him on and we did the 700m trip to the top and watched the taboggen things going down and saw a few stupid people doing bungy jumps!!!! it seemed ok apart from the hangining there after and waiting to be hoisted up! Yikes!!!!!!! Found an interesting place to stay that evening, way up in the mountains just out of Queenstown on what seemed to be a dirt track and maybe was going to be houses in the future?? The next day we did some wine tasting...nothing like Barossa Valley but was cool, you have your own chip and pin card which you top up and then you can go for any vino u like, u can opt for a taste/half glass/full glass - dan actually didnt use all his credit but i managed too :-D After we had to watch some of the cricket in a sports bar...i was kept amused with a glossy and some deep fried camembert and chips :-D Needed some grease to soak up the alcohol. And also had a few glasses of wine in there....Dan was obviously designated driver. We were under the illusion that you could 'freedom' camp in new zealand as long as there as no signs saying no camping.....we parked up last night on the side of the road out of Queenstown...there was a knock on the door at 8.30am this morning, got a telling off and a leaflet shoved at me...apparently you cant camp within 10k's of residential areas (news to us!) So swiftly moved on and left Queenstown to head into Arrowtown...very quaint town, nice little cafes and shops and a lovely lake with the wild Russell Lupins growing all around. Made our way to Lake Wanaka this arvo, tis cool...New Zealand is very scenic so we are just taking it all in and are very chilled!!! 5 weeks today until we will be home so just making the most of it as soon to come to an end...we worked out that we left Sydney a month ago! Time is flying! Have booked a trip to Franz Josef Glacier on 20th Dec...going to stay out of the town 2nite (hopefully no more knocks on the camper door!) Bloody POMES eh! Right time to hit the road once again, hoping the weather picks up for Christmas, having all seasons in one day so far.

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Comments

[bob]

automatics
sounds like u need a lesson in automatic driving! i learnt the hard way, cooking the brakes in the pico's in northern spain!