Very early start this morning saw us all falling asleep on the way to Milford on the bus...Our sleep was disturbed however when the emergency exit on the roof just above my head blew off!! A little bit of panic later and the lurrrrrvely bus driver stopped the bus, jumped up on the seats and actioned manned it over my head and out onto the roof of the bus!

Now, this is where Kiwi busmen expertise really come into it....he used a very old and typical man strategy to ensure our safety and fix the problem....he kicked it till it fell off and then bought it inside through the newly created sun roof! I would like to remind readers at this point that Milford Sound is the second wettest place in the southern hemisphere! Fabulous!!

So off we go driving along again....with me wrapped up in all the clothes I could possibly find and the wind blowing a gale through all our hairs!! The only saving grace is that we had managed to wing it so we were travelling on one of the only sunny days the route to Milford has!

After about half an hour of breeziness we arrived in Te Anau for a pitstop and for the driver to plod off to a garage and try to sort the problem of the gaping hole in his roof... once again...and please dont worry too much....but the solution to the men seemed obvious and tehy solved the problem quickley.....they took the emergency exit hatch door....and they welded it onto the roof of the bus! Genius!

Atle was a little concerned that in case of emergency I would position myself like a good girl at the emergency exit and try and get out ignoring other peoples protestations not to. To quell fears, he took the time to sit me down and talk me through a new revised emergency protocol and fleeing procedure! With the new plan in place, we motored...somewhat illegally i suspect on to Milford!

Once we got there (hurrah!) we got straight on the Spirit of the Sounds boat and went on a wee cruise around the sounds. It was beautiful...windy, rainy and hazy...but really beautiful. Lots of waterfalls and mountains which, with the mist had a really eerie look about them! The boat went right up under a couple of waterfalls aswell which was just amazing....looking up at a waterfall it looks like its going in slow motion! So much POWER though!!very cool.

After that we went to an underwater observatory...basicallyan aquarium precariously dangling from....something...in the middle of the sound! You could look out into the sound to see what you can see but too be honest, its a bit of a con cause they just had like window boxes with lumps of sea stuff on them and u couldnt see much further than them into the water...some cute fishes though!

Went to our accomodation after that and....as is now tradition in the faux fishy family...we all sat around playing board games! The "best" one being Cranium whoch was definitely the hardest and most embarrassing one! I had to sculpt a fortune cookie out of plastacine for Emma, and she hasnt learned that shouting louder and louder doesnt make it the right answer!! We lost very very badly! Not good! Bloody Norwegian/Danish people winning everything!

Funniest moment might well have been when Katefish tried humming the friends theme tune to Jo and she had absolutely no idea what was going on!! Kates attempts have thrown out my idea of us becoming the new Von Trapp family!

Back to Queenstown after more card playing and more card game tutorage! We are so good at foreign card games now!