Young World Travellers: Day Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine and Forty

We enjoyed a lovely lunch by the side of the picturesque Lake Wakatipu on our journey north last Thursday. The weather was lovely and warm and we were sat right by the lake shore - it was beautiful. We then headed down 'the devil's staircase' - a winding mountain road that would lead us to the expanding and vibrant tourist hotspot of Queenstown. We arrived and parked up in the holiday park before walking into town. The weather wasn't great but we were starving so we enjoyed a world famous Fergburger - they didn't disappoint. With no sign of the rain stopping, we booked luging for the next day and headed back to the campervan for an earlyish night.

It was still tipping it down in the morning so we looked for something to do indoors while we waited for the sun to come out. We found a 'sensory maze' which was a very unique experience, through various rooms with different lighting, textures, smells and various activities through the maze. It kept us entertained for an hour or so before we headed up the Queenstown gondola to the luge track. We had to get another chairlift up to the starting grid and we enjoyed flying down the slippery slopes and turns but it was still raining and we got completely soaked through. We had a hot chocolate in the cafe at the top of the hill and dried out a little before heading back to the campervan. We saw a few people bungy jumping and it's definitely something we'll have a go at in the future as well as various other extreme activities that the town offers - we just didn't have any luck with the weather.

We found a nice spot by the lake just outside Lowburn to pitch up for the night and woke to several hungry ducks on the search for their breakfast. We had a long drive and got to our overnight stop in Lumsden early enough, our pitstop before heading to Milford Sound early the next morning. We didn't do an awful lot but caught up a bit on things at home and made use of the free wifi. It was a popular spot for freedom campers, nestled in the middle of the quiet town opposite a grocery store, with no charge for staying there and limitless free wifi. The Bafe Bakery is right next door too and they are reknowned in New Zealand for their doughnuts which we can confirm are some of the best we've ever had.

We woke on Sunday with a long drive to Milford Sound ahead of us. The weather was rainy but we thought nothing of it until it started snowing heavily the further we drove. Thankfully it wasn't settling on the roads at this point and we had 80 miles left to drive with no service, no shops and no fuel. As we continued into the unknown, the snow got thicker still and now it was really starting to settle. We were further unnerved when we saw a camper van had skidded off the road into the bushes, but there was little we could do to help as we'd have only got stuck ourselves. By now, the snow was a few inches thick on the ground and the camper was starting to struggle. We had no choice but to keep going as if we had stopped and tried to turn around we definitely would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere. We continued on where we saw a 4x4 had also skidded off the road and crashed into a ditch, but the driver looked like he was okay and again we couldn't really stop to help. At one stage, we had to climb a winding road up a steep hill and the campervan begin to really struggle to grip - we got down to walking pace as it desperately tried to grip the road and push us up the hill. - It started to go sideways uncontrollably but thakfully we had the road to ourselves and with great persistence from both human and machine, we somehow we made it. Not far up the road the snow had was a distant memory and the sun shone down like it was a warm summer's day - the weather can change unbelievably quickly here.

After going through a mile long tunnel right through the centre of a mountain, we arrived at Milford Sound. It's a very quiet place with no phone service or shops and only one little fuel pump which we were now in desperate need of. Again the weather was closing in so we picked up a few booklets from the information centre and headed to our campsite where we enjoyed a lovely hot shower in private bathrooms, even with a heated towel rack - a real luxury out here! We caught up on our laundry and had a nice dinner before heading to bed, praying for some sunshine for the next day.

Our prayers were answered and glorious sunshine lit up Milford Sound on Monday morning. We had a few little walks around the shores and up to various look out points, getting some nice pictures in the process. There were various cruise options available and we'll come back to do the sunrise cruise at some point as that sounded good, but very cold. Endangered birds called Keas, a type of parrot, were causing nuisance around the camp. They are large, very inquisitive birds and you could get pretty close to them without bothering them in the slightest. They frequently landed on our roof and we saw one clawing and biting at the sockets and pipes of the campervan next door to us which was amusing. After a nice hot chocolate from the cafe and seeing a bit more of the wildlife and scenery, we headed for The Chasm - a huge gorge in the mountainside where cascading water has shaped unusual sculptures through the granite over many years. We had a nice but damp walk through the rainforest to reach it and got a few pictures before a much nicer drive all the way back to Lumsden again - not a flake of snow to be seen this time.

We've found another library to update the blog this morning and will be heading north this afternoon to Wanaka where tomorrow we plan to conquer the 6 hour hike up Roy's Peak just outside the town.

Highlights - Lunch by Lake Wakatipu, visiting Queenstown, visiting Milford Sound, The Chasm, the doughnuts from Bafe Bakery