Milford Sound

Got packed up and said goodbye to our lovely motel suite at the Red Tussock in Te Anau, and to the lovely owner, too. We had a beautiful drive to Milford Sound - which just got more beautiful all the time. Had a quick coffee at the Blue Duck café, then had a short walk along the foreshore - where I got this photo.

Had lunch in the car, then got on the boat for a wildlife cruise of the 'Sound' (apparently, it's really a fiord, not a sound). It rained on and off but there were plenty of opportunities to get out on deck to take copious photos. Saw some fantastic waterfalls, lots of fur seals and PENGUINS! (Six Fiordland Crested penguins. So exciting! Rubbish photos though, I'm afraid....)

Had an equally beautiful drive back, and stopped briefly at Mirror Lakes on the way. It was the wrong time of day/wrong weather for the lakes to be completely mirror-like, but they were still beautiful and we spent quite a while watching a couple of NZ scaups diving way down into the water.

By now we were pretty hungry, so we picked up pies in Te Anau yet again, and also popped to the supermarket for dinner ingredients. Drove on to Manapouri and found the Freestone Backpackers just outside of town. We were given a sweet little cabin nestled in the hillside, cooked dinner in our own wee kitchen and then sat out on the verandah for hours, first watching all the little birds pecking around in the grass, and a horse which wandered past, then reading our books and much later looking at the many many stars. So relaxed!