Day 141 - Milford Sound

Milford Sound is pretty special. In fact, its very special. I've been increasingly impressed with what New Zealand has to offer in terms of natural beauty. A bit rubbish up until the south island, its got increasingly better as we have journied further south. But Milford Sound tops the lot.



The real special stuff is the drive into the sound. Its about an hour of sheer beauty. Cliff faces on either sides of the road, open gorges, snow melting on the roadsides, waterfalls, rockfalls and hanging valleys literally litter the road up to the sound. as well as 1km long tunnel through a mountain. It doesn't get much better than this.







Once we parked up and checked into the only hostel there (and the most expensive we've stayed at in NZ), we went for a walk to check out the Sound, which everyone says is amazing. Its just a massive sea valley, but they don't come much better than this. It just *works*. And after taking too many photos of the same thing, I grabbed a stick and pretended to be a ninja for 2 hours while we walked back to the hostel. Classy.





The hostel is dull. No phone reception, no tv reception, no tv, no dvd, nothing. So after anna started flirting with a very hot french guy, I beat eve at a game of chess, and then we got the french dude to come and play Ludo with us. Apologies to Ludo fans, but what the hell is that game about??? Its actually the dullest, longest, most annoying game ever. I hate it. I hate the person who invented it, and I hate travellers who have magnetic versions in their backpacks. Its rubbish. Seriously.

In the morning the girls opted to do a boat trip up the sound. I'm pretty well versed in beautiful scenery, so I opted out, saving the cash for some adventure sports in Queenstown. It seems I didn't miss too much. But that aside, what I did see was super special. And so we jumped in the laser around 2pm, and headed off on a two day mission towards Dunedin, the site of our much-anticipated big weekend bender.