9th March: A later start and a quick whizz from Wanaka to Queenstown after a detour to Arrowtown and stopping to watch a few people pay a large amount of money to jump off AJ Hackett's bungee bridge. Eeek, it makes my stomach lurch just to watch.
In Queenstown I find a few people I know from previous journeys and head out for a drink. Actually from now on people keep re-appearing unexpectedly.
10th March: Milford Sound is about 70km West of Queenstown but 380km by road, there's talk of blasting a tunnel through the Livingstone mountain range to make a short cut but for now it's sit back and enjoy the ride. Along Lake Wakatipu to Kingston, through Mossburn and pretty Te Anau where farm land starts to give way to mountains and we enter wild Fiordland National Park. There's a few stops at lookouts - the Eglinton planes and various small lakes and waterfalls also at Monkey creek where we fill our bottles with wonderfully pure and cold melted glacier water. Out here Moose were once released but no-one knows if they're still here, likewise an ancient Maori tribe, and recently a crashed helicopter was found- lost for over 13 years. 
The road winds through glacial valleys and our driver tells us about avalanches and landslips which cause frequent problems. Then we pass through the Homer tunnel hearing about the isolated communities who lived out here building the road in a post-war depression project. Through the tunnel down New Zealand's steepest descent and we're soon at Milford Sound. A boat cruise takes us up and down the Sound. Not a Sound at all but a Fjord. Missed by Captain Cook though he did name nearby Doubtful Sound (as he was in doubt that having sailed into it whether he would get out of it) and visit Dusky Sound. There are seals and waterfalls cascading in places though with the recent dry weather not as many as always we're told. The mountains rise up steeply from the sea, tree-covered and surveying. 
We stay at a small place called Gunn's camp in the shadow of mountains and accursed by sandflies then next day travel down to Invercargill and Bluff to catch the ferry to Stewart island, New Zealand's third island.
The bumpy crossing is apparently smooth for the Foveaux strait. Once landed at Oban a tiny place, there's time for a walk to see the sunset, it's cold though, the most Southerly of my travels so far.
Another walk in the morning around the coast but it's overcast. A few days might have been better with a chance to go further into the island and take some longer walks. But it's back across the sea and back up to Queenstown.
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