Yesterday was a real wash out, it rained the whole day, so we didn't get anything done, but it gave us the chance to chill out and watch movies all day!

Today we went to Milford Sound, and how glad were we that the trip got postponed until today...the weather was fantastic (more on that later!). I was awake at 4.30am and couldn't get back to sleep as we had to get up at 6am anyway, so I was pretty shattered this morning. We had the best day, first we drove to Te Anau a little village about 2 hours from Queenstown, we stopped off there for a coffee, and then headed off again. We had a quick stop at the Mirror lakes, which were exactly what you'd expect them to be with that name, they were really amazing, you could see the mountains and the sky reflected in the water, there was even a sign, which didn't make sense looking at it, but when you looked in the reflection in the water, it said Mirror lakes, clear as day....cool!

At the Mirror Lakes

This is not the sky, but the reflection in the water

Next stop was lunch at Cascade Creek, we went for a bit of a bush walk while the guide started up the barby, and by the time we got back, it was all ready for us. After a great lunch, we stopped off at the stream of Eternal youth, if you drink it you're supposed to wake up the next day looking 10 years younger, I should have just jumped in it!! We'll have to wait and see what I look like in the morning, but unless I can catch up on my lost sleep, I'll probably look 10 years older!!

Stream of Eternal youth

We finally got to Milford Sound about 2pm, just in time to catch the boat for our trip. We were really lucky in that we were practically the only ones on the boat so we had lots of room. We learnt that Milford Sound is actually a fjord, not a sound, made by glacier activity, it was pretty spectacular, the boat slowly made it's way across the water, and we were surrounded by these amazing mountains the whole way, it was definitely a New

Zealand moment for me, absolutely stunning.

We were really lucky to see some little seals too, they were quite content sunning themselves on the rocks...so sweet! We headed out towards the start of the Tasman sea, so the water started to get a bit rougher. The captain of the boat was making his commentary and he said how lucky we were that the weather was so perfect today, it was only the second day in the last 10 that has been sunny, and he said it was a good job we weren't there yesterday as they had torrential rain and up to 116 miles an hour gusts of wind...how lucky that they cancelled our trip yesterday, Mum and I were so grateful!! The waterfalls on the mountains are supposed to be spectacular when it's raining, but we saw quite a few so we got the best of both worlds.

On the way back to the jetty, there was another large waterfall, again this one was supposed to make you look 10 years younger if you put your hands in it..... the captain said we would go quite close so we may get a little wet....anyway, he practically drove underneath it and everyone got soaked....very amusing! At least we'll all look younger tomorrow ;o)

some more pics of Milford Sound

We're off to Dunnedin tomorrow morning, it's our last night in Queenstown tonight, so we're quite sad, but we're uplifted a bit knowing that we can visit Cadbury World at our next destination!!