Cashley Deer Farm B&B Te Anau

... the Mount Cook Lilly, which we had actually seen in Mount Cook. He was really knowledeable as he had lived, sailed, dived and fished in the area all his life.

Doubtful Sound is spectacular, natural, high, serene, gorgeous! Travis (Chris's son) cooked crayfish that they had caught that morning, for lunch. We sailed for about 3 hours and reached the Tasmin Sea through a narrow ...

... As with the rest of New Zealand it wasn't very busy and we soon discovered that there were only 4 passangers on the boat... so we had loads of room.

The cruise was amazing... the sides of the fiord were lush with vegetation, apart from where tree-valaunches had occured and were incredibily steep and high. The water was perfectly calm and the weather was clear and sunny.

We explore the sound and spotted a few pairs of rare ...

... woke up during the night with the rain battering down - not a good sign for sea kayaking. The rain was relentless and there was no sign of it letting up when the minibus came to pick me up at 7.45 but unlike the helicopter trips which just got cancelled in bad weather if there was no kayaking we would go on a cruise instead. The girl who was to be our guide advised that the river where we would set out from was very high and although we could get out from there into Milford Sound it ...

... the show and told us that the pilot not only put the movie together but also built the cinema as there was no where the film could be shown locally! It was such a great movie (only 30 minutes) and captured the spirit of Fjordland so much better than photos and postcards, I bought a copy to bring home and booked a helicopter flight!

I was shattered after such a long day and visited the local Italian for Lasagne – not bad it was too.

... second, at that, I'm stuck, leaning forward with my hand burning on this stove, this giver of warmth, source of life, but at the moment, it's nothing short of a torture device, in the sort of irony that life seems so full of. Whether I was able to somehow pull myself back, or one of my Spanish friends helped me, I can't remember, but I survived the experience with only minor burns to my hand. I re-create the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the guy runs outside and plunges ...

... things about this self travel time is how easy it has been to meet up with friends from the program. We have all traded around travel buddies, meeting up and parting ways, but getting to hear one another's stories in between. New Zealand is such a small country, and has extensive travel and tourist infrastrcture which really facilitates getting around. That's all for now, I will continue next time with my remaining travel. Enjoy the photos!

... Then I caught the biggest fish of the day, another blue cod! I almost caught a shark, too. I was pulling in a small fish, I thought, then it got heavier and heavier. Chris came over to help me and as I was pulling it up, he saw a shark let go of my small fish and swim away! You could see the shark's teeth marks in my fish! They have great white sharks here so I wonder if I had a small one - it would be awesome to catch a shark! We will try again tomorrow. Tonight Chris ...

... track. We climb steadily as the track winds around Mt Luxmore. The summit is 1470m and we're not far off it. "Beware of wind gusts while crossing the saddle" said the literature. Just as we get onto the ridge the wind gets up, rain turns to sleet and it actually snows for a few minutes. But just as quickly the wind drops, sun shines and the magnificent views dropping away on both sides are revealed. Who needs picture perfect weather ...

... we're staying at has a great view of the lake and mountains. However we made two mistakes here. We decided to hike the Kepler Track, famous for it's stunning views. First mistake: the Kepler is a Great Walk, and almost EVERYONE who comes to New Zealand seems to hike it, so it was crowded and expensive. Mistake Two: Didn't check the weather report. Those stunning mountain views from the ridge we had heard about got buried in clouds and rain 5 ...