Farmers World Tour: Landing on a Glacier above Milford Sound

Number of campsites stayed in so far : 4
Best Toilet Facilities so far : None really (all adequate but lacking a certain something)
Best View from the Van so far : Lake Tekapo Camping

We wanted to go and visit the famous Milford Sound. We were going to camp down at the Sound but after extensive internet research discovered that sand flies were a real problem down there. Having both experienced a particularly bad episode of sand fly bites on a Goan beach we were keen to avoid this eventuality. We decided to camp at Te Anau and take a day tour to Milford Sound. Te Anau turned out to be a pretty place on a massive lake (the 2^nd biggest in NZ). We spent an afternoon there looking round and stocking up on cheap NZ t shirts (ours are getting a bit threadbare after 4 months of continuous wearing - Note not totally continuous we do wash them occasionally!).

The day trip was with a local man who had a small coach (found him on Trip Advisor – www.fjordlandtours.co.nz ). We drove slowly down to the sound stopping at loads of sights on the way including waterfalls, ice and amazing views.

Mirror Lakes on the way to Milford Sound

Lake Gunn - watch out for the sand flies

Climbing down to admire some ice

At around lunch time we boarded a small boat for the main attraction – the Sound (apparently geographically this is wrong - its actually a fjord). Call it what you like it was pretty amazing. Sheer rock on each side with waterfalls falling into the blue sea below. Really spectacular (would like to thank Sheila at this point for her endorsement of the place and swaying me to add it to the itinery whilst sitting in her kitchen in Pendeen last June). We went out to the mouth of the fjord where it leads into the Tasman Sea where it was alot rougher. We then went down the other side and the boat stopped to admire the seals and the numerous waterfalls. Definately a more impressive sight than the gorges in China another thumbs up for this World Sight (Farmers World Tour Official Rating : 8.5).

Wake up you lazy seal

Spot the cheap NZ top !!

The boat we cruised on the Mitre 2

We had an extra option to go on a helicopter for part of the way back and meeting up with the coach later on. We decided to do this. Neither of us had been up in a helicopter before, it was a tiny machine and we sat at the front the whole way. We had spectacular views flying over Milford Sound then the mountains. We landed on the top of one on a glacier which was totally awesome – such a fantastic experience.