South Island - New Zealand - Friday 1st of April. 2016

We woke up at Cascade Creek to the sound of rain drops on the roof of the camper. The trees above us were giving us shelter from the drizzle but the leaves were dripping heavily. After breakfast we headed off for Milford Sound along the wet and slippery road that is an engineering masterpiece. To think that a hundred or so years ago someone had the idea to construct a road out to here over and through these mountains is absurd, but I'm glad they did. A one point you drive through a 1.2 kilometre long tunnel carved straight through the side of a mountain at an elevation of around 800 metres. This wasn't done using current building methods it was done the old fashioned way and three people died during the construction from avalanches. The views along the road are awesome and it's all you can do do concentrate on the road ahead.

Eventually we arrived at Milford Sound, early enough for a coffee in the cafe and then we boarded our vessel for the cruise around the sound. This place is simply awesome and the trip to New Zealand was worth it just to come here. The rain had created hundreds of waterfalls and low hanging cloud. It rains 200 days a year here on average and they get around 6 to 7 metres of rain annually, which is more then the Amazon Jungle. The cruise went for around 2 hrs and they let us off at an underwater observatory before completing our journey back to shore. 

Once back on dry land we drove to Queenstown and once again the views were to die for. The last 50 or so kilometres alongside Lake Wakatipu are simply stunning. Queenstown itself is a very busy metropolis and it appears to be an expensive place. We have set up camp 10 kilometres from town towards Glenorchy in a DOC Campsite which is still $30 for the night for a piece of grass and a toilet. The views here are also great and we watched the sunset over the mountains as we had our dinner.