On Saturday morning we left Queenstown for Te Anau about 200km South. The journey as ever was filled with stunning backdrops and mountain ranges. In some areas the scenery almost looked like it was painted on - it really is just endless here! We arrived in Te Anau around lunchtime and after pitching our tent we had some lunch and then went for a mooch around the pretty town. That evening we planned our trip to Milford Sounds and then made a very hot curry for dinner before relaxing in the camp TV room and watching a James Bond film.

On Sunday morning after breakfast we got on our way towards Milford Sounds. The journey can take over 2 hours if you get stuck behind the rows of tour buses but we had left early enough to fortunately be ahead of them all. Along the way there were various stop off points to admire more incredible scenery. It was raining which added to the impressive waterfalls cascading down the cliff faces as we drove through the valley created by a long gone glacier. Many of the slopes had snow gathered in cracks and crevasses where the sun was unable to reach.

When we arrived at Milford it really was teaming it down. This was expected as they have up to 7 metres of rain a year and it usually rains for 200 out of the 365 days. We had a while to wait before our 1.15pm boat trip around the Sounds so found a cafe to keep dry.

At 1pm we went to the terminal which was heaving with tourists and as expected lots of Japanese snapping away with their cameras!

We boarded our small boat with 68 other people and set off. The trip took 2 hours and the commentary about the Sounds was very imformative. Due to the heavy rain the waterfalls were really impressive, however it did make it a bit tricky to take pictures without you and the camera getting soaked! We saw a fur seal colony and even got to see penguins, which is very rare this time of year. The boat took us out to the edge of the Tasman Sea where it got a bit choppy but sadly due to the weather we couldn't see very far out. The most impressive thing about being on the small boat was it allowed you to get closer to the rock face and under many of the larger waterfalls.

Back on dry land we drove back to Te Anau and had a chilled out evening hiding from the rain. It continued to rain all through the night and this morning we woke up to it still hammering on the tent. The tent had also leaked during the night and Mark woke up to a soggy sleeping bag where he'd been dripped on all night. We had to pack up so chucked the very wet tent in the car and prayed for dryer weather in Dunedin our next destination.

We arrived in Dunedin around lunchtime to thankfully no rain. Pitching the tent for one of the last times was no less stressful however, as another pole broke as we tried to put it up. Without reserves we just had to snap the broken piece off and after nearly an hour it was up. With one pole considerably shorter now than the other it's a bit lopsided and we just hope we have no rain or wind for our last 3 nights camping!

We plan to spend the next couple of days in Dunedin doing some walks and hopefully seeing some of the wildlife.

Not long now!

Lots of love

Rach & Mark. xxx