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We arrived in the tiny town of Te Anau just before dark and found a free campground just outside. Te Anau is the last place on the road before the 2 hour drive to Milford Sound and we planned to use this as our base instead of staying in Milford itself. The following day we explored Te Anau and walked along its lake, the plan was to drive up to Milford Sound that evening ready for our boat trip the next morning. However, just before we were due to set off we found out that there had been an avalanche on the only road to Milford and it had been shut until lunchtime the next day! This was not good as we already had our tickets booked. We rang up the tour company and they told us that they could move us onto an afternoon boat but we had to be ready to get there as soon as the road opened.
The next day we set off at 10am in order to give ourselves plenty of time to get to where the road was blocked for lunchtime. We timed it perfectly and reached the avalanche at 12.15pm. Half the road was still piled high with snow and cherry pickers were working hard to move it. We slowly drove through on the clear side of the road with walls of snow on either side of us. The remainder of the journey to Milford was quite spectacular with mountains full of snow towering up all around us and walls of snow at least 2meters high on either side of the road. Once at the Milford Harbour we checked in and waited to board the 1.40pm boat. It was quite a grey day and kept trying to rain but we decided we would sit outside on the upper deck anyway, to make the most of the views. -We were not disappointed! The ferry began to take us around the large, towering mountains that are scattered throughout the sounds waters, after the first bend a large waterfall came into view. Water was being thrown off a huge cliff and we watched as it plummeted into the water below - spectacular! We continued on, passing lots more waterfalls and even spotting the large dolphins of the Sound, which jumped out of the water alongside the boat. On the return journey we spotted seals lounging on nearby rocks and also got to go right up close to the base of one of the waterfalls….we got quite wet.
Back on dry land we returned along the snowy road to Te Anau and finished off the day in a little pub there. We parked up for a 3rd night on Te Anau's free campground and then set off again in the morning heading for Queenstown. The drive into Queenstown was pretty spectacular with large lakes and the "Remarkables Mountains" towering up around us. We arrived in Queenstown mid-afternoon and were greeted once again with rain and drizzle. We parked up and spent the afternoon walking around the shops and tiny streets. That evening we decided to try and find Fergburger….a burger place recommended to us by Nikki and Ben2. And it was a good recommendation. Fergburger was packed when we arrived and more people were following behind us. The choice of different burgers and fillings was incredible and the size of the finish articles was awesome. We took a while to decide which burgers we wanted and then found seats to wait for the best burgers in the world. Ben had ordered the double ferg and I had gone for the chicken avo, both were incredible and we highly recommend Fergburger to anyone who is planning a trip to Queenstown.
The next day we checked into another motorhome site to plug in and recharge. We spent the morning using the sites kitchen and getting our veg from Andy cooked and the venison made into patties. We put everything in containers and then headed back into Queenstown for a wine tasting session. We arrived at the wine shop at 3pm, gave our names to the guy at the desk and were provided with a plastic card each with $30 on. We spent the afternoon going around the different wine machines and using our $30 to try as many wines as possible….wonderfulJ We decided that our favourite was the Cabernet Merlot and the dessert wine. Afterwards we returned to the motorhome site, cooked up the venison patties along with some veg and ate this whilst watching the All Blacks on the telly.
Most of our last day in Queenstown was spent in Happy Travels agency. We originally went in to enquire about Fiji packages and came out having booked: a skydive each, a glacier hike each and a 9 day island hopping package around the Yasawas islands in Fiji. Quite an expensive day all in all. We were given vouchers for free cookies due to booking so much and so we came out of the travel shop and pigged out on cookies and starbucksJ. That night we found a quiet layby to park up in and got up early the next day to set off for Wanaka.
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