Round to the bottom...

Ok, so maybe we jumped the gun saying that NZ is like home. Sure, they drive on the same side, the flora is European, road signs are similar and some houses are even made of brick rather than wood, but the thing that isn’t like home is the scenery. We’ve got pretty orchards, rolling hills and some tranquil rivers but over here, they’ve got snow capped mountains, crystal clear lakes, endless trees plus all of the above. This country is genuinely awesome and amazes us with every turn we make. Then when it gets a bit flat, the fields are full of little lambs all bleating and gambolling around. The Southern Scenic Route is so amazing to drive and despite several stops along the way, there’s still so much we’ve not seen.

Our next stop was Invercargill. Not really much happening here (apart from purchasing a nice Russell Brand style red & white scarf for me and a capped sleeved hoodie for Tash) however a short drive south brought us to a landmark in our journey – the furthest point South we’ll ever be. Reaching the bottom of New Zealand meant that we were also as far from home as we’ll get, about 11850 miles from London! Although we were still 3006 miles from the South Pole, as the only place on the planet closer to Antarctica than NZ is the bottom of Argentina (& we’re unlikely to go there) I guess this is the closest we’ll get to the bottom of the Earth.


So we then continued along the rest of the Southern Scenic route and up into Fiordland. The whole south western edge of the South Island is made up of huge lakes and fiords formed by huge glacial movement during the Ice Age (no, not the movie, the REAL one millions of years ago), and now contain some of the most amazing views ever. Although there are numerous fiords to investigate the 3 most well-known ones are Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound & Milford Sound, and with Milford being the most accessible from our camp at Lake Te-Anau, we took an excursion there. (BTW – Fiords are formed by glacial movement whereas a sound is a flooded valley, the Sounds in south west NZ are all true fiords that have been named wrong. Plus I’m sure fjord is spelt with a “j” but they use an “i” over here). The journey north to Milford Sound took us through the Homer Tunnel which was blasted through the lower mountain rock and is 1 mile of roughly hewn, virtually unlit, one lane of scary tunnel – glad we weren’t driving that day! This then brought us to the quayside of Milford Sound and once we started cruising along the fiords we were blown away. I have never seen anything so amazing in my life and despite us trying to capture it in our pictures, it was truly awe inspiring. Every turn was flanked by these huge rising cliff faces & rock edges, all strewn with patches of beech forest & cascading falls, whilst the snow covered Mitre Peak & Mount Tutoko stood on either side, dwarfing this already huge feat of nature. We cruised out to the mouth of Milford Sound, where it met the mighty Tasman Sea and then returned along past some of the waterfalls, where the skipper very kindly forced the boat under the falling spray, thus drenching yours truly. After our cruise we did a bit of hiking (or tramping as it is know in NZ) around the foothills, taking in some pretty spectacular waterways and views back of Mount Tutoko, along with the scars of a recent avalanche. Talking of waterways, you can sod your Evian & Buxton Spring, as we were able to drink from some of the coldest & purest water I have ever tasted from the mountain streams. This day went so fast, and as good as the last 3 months have been, this was also the most spectacular.

PS - to top off all this cool stuff, we found a shop selling old-skool, square bagged PG.