The early bird catches the worm, so they say, but we have got into the routine of having around 9 hours sleep per night, so having to wake up before 7am was well, a wake up call. We had to be up early, because of the Milford sounds cruise we were booked on. It started at 9, but we still had to pass through the mountains to reach the boat. It was, as always, an amazing drive and included a very eerie drive through Homer’s tunnel, a very long dark rock tunnel, with just enough room for a coach to pass through, plenty of potholes to negotiate, no lighting and constant water dripping from the ceiling.

On arrival at the cruise terminal, we were met by plenty of sandflies who were there to wave us off, this part of the country seems to be the worst so far for the little buggers and we will be glad to be rid of them. Our Jucy cruise set off on time into the Milford sounds. The sounds are very impressive, with huge cliffs either side of you, some over 300 metres. There were waterfalls aplenty, fur seals, what we think was a penguin and panoramic views the whole time. The water itself was brackish, with over 3 metres of fresh water sitting on top of the sea water coming in from the Tasman sea and as a result was extremely dark and housed loads of sea creatures that normally reside in waters much deeper. When we came back into port a couple of hours later, we were ready for some brunch.

We decided to drive for a while before we ate, stopping to admire ‘The Chasm’ on the way. It seems silly to say but of course it was beautiful and no pictures could do it justice. Seeing as we were in the mountains and amongst such amazing scenery, we had decided that we really should climb a mountain. The peak we would scale today after our fried eggs, was Keys summit. A steep 3 hour round trip from the road up the famous Routeburn track.

We had our fried eggs in the car park and with full bellies, started to scale the mountain. It was a pleasant incline to start with on a nice even surface, inevitably though, it got steeper and more uneven, I aimed to keep Evie’s mind off the task in hand by keeping her busy chatting and making sure she couldn’t see the time.

My plan failed, she stopped for a photo and we had already stopped to cool off our heads in a mountain stream. This is when she spied my watch and realised we had only been going for half an hour. Cue moments of self doubt and hatred of me for making her do this to her. She was determined though and with the promise of a cold beer at the end, we powered on up and reached the top in just over an hour, much quicker than predicted and Evie was very happy about this.

 

She wasn’t so happy at being told that the cold beer was down in the car and not in my backpack. I guess I missed out the finer details. The scenery made it all worth it, with amazing views of mountains, lakes and glaciers.

We spent some time wandering around the alpine path at Keys summit before we ventured back down, almost running down the track back to the car in about half an hour. I was very impressed and the beer was well worth it.

 

We drove back along the Milford road to Te Anau where we would spend the night. On the way we briefly stopped to stretch our legs at the Mirror Lakes, the name says it all, crystal clear, still lakes reflecting the mountains behind them, beautiful!

We had a bit of a task finding a bed for the night, having already decided that we had earned a night on an actual mattress in an actual building. Eventually we found a very nice place called Rosie’s Backpackers. A private room in a cosy house with other travellers from around the globe sharing the communal areas. It was a nice place to enjoy our evening meal of kale, lamb leg steaks and home made wedges (Evie’s missed her wedges)

Our room was a bit of a sauna, but we took the opportunity to catch up on our favourite show ‘Suits’ and spoke to our families in the morning.

From Te Anau we retraced our tracks back to Queenstown, briefly stopping in town to stock up for dinner supplies and have another Patagonia ice cream. I went for a haircut, the plan was not to cut it until we came home, but apparently I need to look presentable for our new job. It was a very good cut and Evie approved. Not long after, whilst we were having sardine bagels, I suddenly realised that the girl who cut my hair was very familiar, I’d never met her before but her voice popped into my head and I realised that this must have been our friend Fay’s sister. We knew she was in Queenstown and had planned on meeting her but we both completely forgot. I was sure that it must have been her so we rushed back to ask. It was her and was a very surreal moment, but we all hugged and planned to meet up at the weekend.

We caught up with Poppy again and then made our way up the shores of Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy, our next nights camping.

Now I can’t express enough how amazing the views are just driving around New Zealand, the glacial lake waters are an incredible azure blue, the snow capped mountains take your breath away and the wall to wall blue sky’s have been an added bonus for most of our trip.

So without uttering a word whilst admiring the scenery on our hour journey to Glenorchy and then 26km around the mouth of the Dart river to Kinloch where our campsite was, only 1km from Glenorchy as the crow flies, but a long gravel track around the river. I didn’t study the map very well, but traveling through scenes of the Lord of the Rings was pretty cool.

We pitched our tent at the mouth of the river, where the fast flowing, milky grey glacial melt water met the electric blue Wakatipu lake. The cause of it being so blue is the microscopic minerals and ground up rocks that are suspended in the water after coming off of the glacier. These catch the sunlight and even though the lake is over 400 metres deep at points, the colour is consistent all the way across.

It was another perfect spot to spend the night. We cooked mussels again (a pain in the neck to clean when camping) and had them with a huge homemade potato rosti.
There were a lot of pools in the area amongst rotting vegetation, needless to say, the sandflies were worse than ever, so soon after dinner we hit the tent for shelter and another good nights sleep.

Back along the river to check out Glenorchy after a breakfast of fried eggs and leftover rosti. The town has a very nice old time feel, with a nice jetty over the lake and coach loads of Asian tourists. We didn’t stay too long and it was set to be another scorcher, so we made our way back to Queenstown, our base for the time being.

 

On the way we stopped at a lay-by to scramble down through the bushes in search of a cliff edge known locally as ‘little Thailand’. We had looked for it the other day with Poppy but to no avail, but this time we found it. A series of ledges over sheer cliffs down into the icy cold lake Wakatipu. After finding the secluded spot, I had to run back to the car to get our swimmers. Sweaty and out of breath I returned and with lots of hesitation, jumped off from the 12 metre point.

For some reason, perhaps the cold water, this felt massive, even after others I’ve done. I decided to have another go before heading up to the 14 metre jump. Evie was contemplating jumping from 10 metres, but after hearing my account of how scary it was, she decides to scramble a bit lower to around 7 metres. I jumped again, this time with the GoPro, but it was just as scary and put me off going any higher today.

I had to climb up and help coax Evie off the edge and she jumped in straight after me. Well done for not hesitating my girl, but apparently she instantly regretted it and screamed the whole way down, surfacing quickly with water pouring from her nose. I had to hold in the laughter whilst I saved her from drowning from shock and got her to safety. I’ve never seen anyone climb slippery rocks so quickly. Before I knew it she was back up on dry land, by now though she was joining me laughing and grinning from ear to ear. ‘Never again’ apparently, so we went back to the car, both still full of adrenaline.

 

Back to town to tell Poppy about our adventure and stock up once again for tonight’s dinner. Today we visited Arrowtown, not far from Queenstown, stopping for a quick wine tasting on the way, well apparently it’s the best Pinot Noir in the country so it’d be rude not to. It was very nice but the price wasn’t so nice and after being politely told that there was no space for lunch for 5 days, there way of saying the backpacker look wasn’t welcome, we left, we’ve had better anyway.

Arrowtown itself is like a model village, something from a western movie, with original wooden buildings built during Queen Victoria’s reign. It was boiling hot and had loads of pretty shops and restaurants, a nice place to wander around for a couple of hours, culminating in a pint at the ‘Fork and Tap’, an English style pub on the green.

That evening we were staying at Mokes lake, another secluded campground down a long gravel track, but again the views and setting were to die for and it was Evie’s turn to make us a slap up meal of Massaman curry and rice. We watched a movie on the laptop, forgot to mention we made a small purchase of a nice new laptop, well we do have a wedding to plan so you know it makes sense. The stars in this very remote area were amazing, it almost made escorting Evie to the loo in the middle of the night worthwhile.

Waitangi day was the following day, 6th Feb, a celebration of the day that the Maori chiefs signed a treaty with the British known as the founding document of New Zealand way back in 1840. It happened to be a Saturday so the whole country was getting a long weekend and Queenstown was busier than ever. There were plenty of activities going on in the afternoon, but we had arranged to go for a walk with Charlotte, who cut my hair and her boyfriend Ivan. It was another gorgeous day and a great walk around part of the lake. It was great to meet them and we seemed to have a lot in common, mainly a love of craft beer so that was a hot topic of conversation.

After our walk we went for lunch in town and I was introduced to an apparent New Zealand staple, the famous cheese roll. What is simply a piece of white bread, rolled up with a creamy, oniony, cheesy sauce inside and grilled, not what you’d call haute cuisine but very satisfying nonetheless. After lunch we went our seperate ways and left them with our Lonely Planet guide for Samoa, where they will be visiting later this year, they will love it.

Taking place at the local rugby field was the rural games, consisting of welly wanging, tug’o’war, tree climbing races and relay wood chopping/sawing. It was all NZ vs Aus and of course NZ won everything, not that it was fixed or anything. This was all a warm up to the main event, however, which was the ‘running of the wools’, New Zealand’s version of the Pamplona bull run only done with merino sheep and rams. We lined the streets in anticipation and the Rams were off first. They were released to great applause, but they weren’t playing ball, apparently too hot to bother running they slowly circled each other up the high street, the sheepdogs trying in vein to rile them up and get them running, some of them even jumping across the tops of them. They were just doing their own thing and it meant we got a good view of them as they came past, massive things with huge heads, huge horns and even bigger… ahem which almost dragged along behind them. The ewes went next and put on a bit more of a show, it was all very bizarre but good fun and basically just a demonstration of what the sheepdogs could do, even with a bunch of stubborn rams.

 

We spent the early evening having a few drinks in the park gardens overlooking the lake in the setting sun with Poppy and Callum. After the sun went down and we were half oiled, we went for a stein in a cowboy bar, winning at doubles pool and dominating the rodeo bull. From there it was time to don our fur coats and booties for a drink in the ice bar, slippery glasses though being made of ice and Evie’s glass slipped out of her hands onto the floor. The night inevitably ended in food, both of us returning to our favourite establishments, Evie had a ‘Fat Badger’ pizza and I had another ‘Fergburger’, both even better than any other after a night on the town.

 

It was time to leave our base in Queenstown and start our adventure North-East. Having a rough idea of where we wanted to go, we decided to head for Mt. Cook, but sore heads changed our route and we opted for the much shorter trip over the mountain to Wanaka. We’re glad we did though, it was another beautiful spot and the lake was easily 10 degrees warmer, making it a great place for a swim in the afternoon sun whilst Evie sat on the shore looking over her newly purchased wedding planner book. Wanaka felt a bit like a slightly slower paced version of Queenstown, still with plenty to do, just with half the tourists and a lot cheaper.

Chilli con carne for dinner in our campsite and extra made for a leftover breakfast, just throw a couple of eggs on it and anythings a breakfast. The next morning we did manage to make the car journey up towards Mt. Cook. After a couple of hours driving, we could see the countries highest mountain on the horizon, but before we got there we had to travel up along the shores of Lake Pukaki, the most amazingly bright blue water we have seen yet and I’m sure nothing could possibly beat it. Evie was trying to have a nap but couldn’t take her eyes off it, I had to concentrate on the road but had to pull over a few times just to stare at the water with the huge southern Alps in the background.

As we passed the end of the lake and the mountains got closer and bigger, some of the huge ice fields and glaciers came into view. The mountains, including Mt. Cook were still snow capped even in the middle of summer which just made the whole scene even more spectacular. We spent a while looking around the small village at the foot of the mountain and the information centre which had pride of place in the middle of the village and an amazing glass wall overlooking the mountain. From there, we went for a walk up to the edge of the Tasman glacier, the largest glacier in the country, but also the fastest receding. The glacier views were awesome, but the meaning behind what you could see was scary. The Ice is disappearing by 200-800 metres every year, this has created a new, huge lake at its base, littered with huge icebergs, this only started in the 1970’s but the lake will have doubled its size again in the next 5 years. It all makes for impressive viewing and the short steep climb was worth it.

 

We left the Mt. Cook national park and drove back down along the edge of lake Pukaki, stopping briefly at a lavender farm which we noticed on the way in. From there it was another hour to Lake Tekapo, another azure blue lake with an amazing backdrop. The reason we stopped here was because the area is known to be one of the best places in the world to see the night sky, they have plenty of clear nights and there are no towns or cities for miles. So after our dinner and waiting for the sun to disappear completely, we made our way to the edge of the lake and just lay down on the sand for ages, staring at the billions of stars above us, the milky way being more visible than we’ve ever seen, even the occasional shooting star. It was lovely and a great end to a great day.