Lakeside Motel Te Anau

... too! We set off with our guide through some amazing underground caves, then eventually we are guided silently and with some rather over dramatic hand gesturing into a small boat. Then the lights go out and the guide I image pulls us along a rope on the wall by hand, there is a lot of bashing against the walls! And I can only wonder how if talking would disturb the glow worms, the constant vibration of the boat crashing ...

... carved waterway, surrounded by soaring mountains, not to mention waterfalls snaking their way  hundreds of feet down into the Sound below at regular intervals. The kind of place that makes you feel incredibly small. But it's not why I came to the Fiordland. I came to walk the Milford Track, a 54 kilometer journey through the unspoiled beauty that is the Fiordland, and regarded as one of the greatest walking trails in the world.    I'm staying at one of the many backpackers hostels in Te ...

... were impossibly tall, dwarfing the road and making us feel tiny. Once we entered a mountain into the Homer tunnel (doh!) and came out the other side, a vast valley lay before us with a tiny windy road disappearing off into the distance. Never seen anything like it, and probably never will again - it's a shame that photographs can just never do that view justice. Not mine anyway! With the road successfully negotiated we arrived at Milford Sound and the ...

... J'ai un bol terrible: bien que le temps soit nuageux je ne me retrouve pas dans la pluie et j'arrive a voir quand meme quelques trucs - j'ai meme decide de faire le detour d'une heure pour aller au Key Summit (le sommet Clef)... mais comme vous le verrez sur les photos la vue etait quelque peu bouchee... ;o) mais c'etait sympa quand meme!! J'arrive a mon premier refuge en debut d'apres-midi. Mon coup de froid n'est toujours pas gueri et je suis un ...

... redecoration - but it overlooks the lake and we took a walk round it to the bird sanctuary this afternoon before returning for a cup of tea and catching up with other folk on the computer. It's Milford Sound tomorrow for us and a cruise, hopefully in the dry! Stuart on the other hand is off kayaking for three days and we will probably not see him again until the UK.

... Et quand on arrive a la derniere chambre, on a droit a un spectacle fincroyable. On se croirait de nuit en train d'observer un ciel plein d'etoiles. Capote Man! Et j'ai fait une petite marche au travers la « Foret de pluie » qui m'a mene au bord de Shallow Bay sur le Lac Manipouri. Il faut que je vous conte (eh oui). J'ai dormi ce soir la a Lake Manipouri dans un camping que meme Lonely Planet decrit comme « Slighly bizarre ». Moi ...