We left Invercargill with a full tank of fuel and headed north towards Fiordland National Park. Our journey was miserable due to the rain that never stopped. We stopped at a look out to try and spot dolphins but we had no luck. We got onto the scenic route, basically on the edge of the National Park which is supposably the wettest part of New Zealand. Even though it wasn't the best day we still had spectacular views. There is only one road to Milford sound, actually theres only one in the whole National Park in fact, which is quite amazing seen as its the size of Wales. The weather finally cleared up which is when we stopped to make dinner, next to Lake Manapouri. As Peter went to the toilet a man pulled up in his 4x4 with a trailor on the back.. it was only full of dead deer. Loads of them with there tongues sticking out and everything. Anyways back to the lovely lake.. yeahh it was lovely. Haha. We eventually arrived in Te Anau to where we went into the information centre to look at crusies to book for the next day. After humming and ahhhing we booked a Southern Discoveries cruise for the morning after at 9.45am. We had a little wander around Te Anau, walking passed a chippy van. We didn't really want anything to eat but had a quick look at the menu as nobody was stood in the van.. As soon as we stopped to look a voice came from behind.. 'Hello, can i help you' to which Peter replied ' Lucy do you want some chips.' So yeah we bought some chips for the sake of it and had chicken salt on them. Chicken salt is massive in New Zealand and Australia. We got back into the van and started driving out of the town towards milford but then remembered we had to empty our grey water as it was full. Peter thought it would be fine just to go into a caravan site and empty it at their dump station.. but Nooo it wasn't that simple. Lucy hiding with embrassment, a man came over to Peter and said 'Hello sir, can i help you?' to which Peter replied 'It's ok if i just empty this here isn't it?' to which the man replied 'Errrrrr NO' Basically telling us to get off his premises. Because milford were 120km away from Te Anau we drove half way that afternoon staying on a DOC site and getting up early the following morning for the cruise. The roads to milford were amazing, so scenic and bendy we found it very hard not to stop for photos. Towards the end of the road we had to drive through the homer tunnel which is about 1km long and goes through a mountain. The weather was nearly perfect, we'd picked a good day to go milford. Once at milford, we parked up and walked to the visitors centre where we had to check in for our cruise. We went on the Lady Bowen nature encounter boat, leaving abit later than expected as we had to wait for two people coming from the airport. After we got going it wasn't long before we came across a waterfall, the bowen falls. This waterfall is one of two permanent falls in the sound, falling 161 metres from a hanging valley. Then we slowly made our way down the left side of the sound, eventually passing the impressive mitre peak.... at a height of 1682 metres, mitre peak is one of the highest mountains in the world to rise directly from the ocean floor. After here we followed the sound towards the sea, stopping at numerous points viewing different trees, rocks, waterfalls and wildlife.... well, one seal sat on the rocks. When we got to the entrance of the sound, we could see right out into the ocean, this is where we turned around... this is called dale point, where the water is 79 metres deep, compared to the rest of the fiord which has depths up to 300 metres. As we made our way back down the other side of the sound we saw another seal at seal point, might have been the same seal for all we know. After here we visited the spectacular stirling falls which drops 155 metres and is the second permanent falls on the fiord. Here the boat reversed into the falls, so we all rushed back inside to avoid a soaking.... got some good photos of the falls as we pulled away. As we made our way back, heading towards harrison cove we saw what we had been praying for.... DOLPHINS spotted around 100 metres away, as the boat approached them it only seemed there were 2 or 3 dolphins.... turns out there must of been around 15-20 dolphins swimming around the boat... this was amazing. Apparently we were very lucky to see them as they had seen them for a week or so. We tried to get some photos, but unfortunately none of the dolphins were up for jumping out of the water. This made the cruise even more well worth it. We later returned to the milford wharf, with lots of photos a memory we'll never forget.... Milford sound is an awesome place of natural beauty. As we left all the coach tours starting appearing, so we were glad we'd gone on the morning cruise. Heading back down the milford road, we stopped at the chasm and then the track to the mirian lake to view some waterfalls. Our next stop was the divide car park, where we started the key summit walk. As we neared the top after an hour and a half, the skies were cloudless, perfect settings to look around the mountains and numerous valleys that we could see from this view point. As we descended back down towards the divide car park, Lucy was telling stories about when Harry was born etc... Peter was that into the story he took us down the wrong path.... by the time we realised we had walked around 15mins into the wrong valley. Lucy was not happy, back uphill again until we found the right path to go back down to the car park where our beloved Arnold was parked. That evening we went back to cascades creek to stay the night. We played balckjack for abit to get Lucy ready for viva las vegas :) .... FIORDLAND NATIONAL PARK IS A PLACE OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY AND WE LOVED IT