Costs:

Yesterday was my last day on the Stray bus. Overall the experience was a positive one and now I felt comfortable being on my own once again. I decided to stay an extra night in Dunedin and take a regular bus to Christchurch rather than travelling a day earlier with the Stray bus. The reason for this was to see the yellow eyed penguins. While New Zealand isn't lacking from scenic beauty the country isn't exactly teeming with animals, so Dunedin along with Kaikoura where the two wildlife destinations on my itinerary.

With no bus to catch in the morning I lazed in the bed and woke up at 9, then after breakfast I set out to explore the city of Dunedin.

[Actual diary text: Dalghodu hadtha easy u qomt xi 9. L-ghagba l-ohra kienet diga qamet qabli u kont diga smajt kull qallut minuskolu u kull bassa twila tal-harja taghha. Nsomma, hadt tazza café mil-kamra biex nuza l-privillegi tal-kamra tal-lukanda u mbaghad tlaqt ghal ghonq it-triq nesplora Dunedin]

The city centre is made of two roads in concentric circles, a good way to find the city centre because you'll inevitably cross these roads when walking towards the centre. A picture of the train/bus station would be a good clue for a trivial pursuit question on the Scottish origins of the word Dunedin. Maybe it had something to do with roads going around in circles but this place stimulated my shopping impulse because I went on a shopping spree. I ended up getting yet another cargo pants, a self inflatable mat and a thermal undervest. The first shop I went into was a cycling shop and I after drooling in the CamelBak section I went to the more approachable thermal underwear section. I convinced myself a black sleek undervest would be more fashionable than the light blue vests I usually wear. I got the medium sized one in the black box and left happy with the bargain – they where ½ the price of the ones I could get in Dublin. When I removed from the box I realised that not only the vest wasn't light blue but it had all the bright colours of the rainbow!

I liked Dunedin as a city. I might say that I think it ended up being my favourite city in the South Island. The small compact centre makes it easy to roam about, the shopping is good and there's a young vibe about the place. There are many students living here because of the University there is which is the only University in the New Zealand where you can study dentistry. As the University Bookshop can easily prove from the loads of shelves full of Medicine books the University's strong point is the medicine section.

After the shopping spree I went back to the hotel and found the Elm's Tour Guide waiting for me at the hotel reception. I rushed upstairs, threw the purchases on the bed, took a piss and hopped on the tour bus. This tour company had a certain professional feel. As I boarded the van, the guide gave me a sheet with the species that we were likely to see on the trip and binoculars. The young guide had a masters degree and he researched the sea lion migration in the area.

After collecting everybody from their respective hotels (while I was reading the Australian M.A.D. magazine) we went to look for the albatross. Even before we walked to the cliff both guides knew that we weren't going to find any albatross. Instead of the albatross I had to content myself with the little shags on their nest. We barely spent two minutes in the wind until everybody walked towards the reception centre. The reception centre had an exhibition on albatross migration however most people preferred to sit in the café section sipping coffee and eating muffins.

The next stop was the fur seal colony. The fur seals like all other seals are always fun to watch, playful and photogenic. I had already watched the seals from a closer distance so I was eager to get on with this part of the tour and spend more time observing the penguins. As we were return back to the van up the hills we had a really hard time walking up because of the very strong wind. The wind was so strong that it made the news, because some places got damaged by the wind in the Otago peninsula. Once again I had to hold my glasses from flying off.

After the seal colony it was time for the long anticipated attraction of the tour – the penguins. We visited the penguins last because dusk is the best time to see these animals. We had to drive for about 45 minutes from the seal place to the penguin. On the way we saw some variable oystercatchers, white faces herons, stilts, shags and paradise ducks.

Before we arrived to the penguins we had to cross the white sandy beach near and pass near a sea lion colony. Their threatening looks didn't scare us, but they were more interested in playing with each other than taking note of our group. At last we came up to the penguin hide and in front of my eyes were the yellow eyed penguins.

There where two courting penguins, a feeble penguin coming up from sea who was being blown away by the wind and there was the movie star penguin. This penguin was staring at the camera in his hide and striking different poses for our pleasure. The guide turned on the TV to oblige.

This was a very poor description of the whole tour and I doubt how much the photos can do give the deserved credit to this activity. All I can say is that if you're even remotely interested in wildlife you should go on the Elms tour. The guides are well informed and knowledgeable and the penguins are just fantastic.

[Actual Diary text Nr. 2] Ahna u sejrin lura d-dar gol-van qadt nisma l-Opeth biex ma nismax il-qroqqa ingliza kerha pesta tiftahar bl-ex boyfriend daniz li kellha.]

When I arrived home I had a short nap and at midnight I went in search for Dunedin nightlife. This was Saturday but for some reason or other I only found 1 bar that had a decent clientele. There were loads of people outside in the streets but whenever I tried to follow a crowd I always ended up in an eatery. I tried to go in a nightclub but after going up an endless flight of stairs I only found 5 underage Chinese girls, probably the only people able to endure the stairs stamina test. The men's toilet was a complete waste of space. At last I ended up in Champions Sports Grill Bar and watched New Zealand lose their only game this year against South Africa 21-20.

View the complete Dunedin Gallery here

Coming next: Wellington

I've returned back from Riga last Sunday but got bogged down in work and forgot to update the blog. The trip was one of the best short breaks I've ever been to. It's comparable to the trip to Romania culture-wise and that's quite a statement.

The best decision I made was staying at a B&B instead of a hostel. I wanted to go to Latvia to meet people and to learn about the recent history of the place and the Home Stay B&B was the ticket to long discussions about Latvia and everything else that happened to fall into the middle of the conversations with Ric and Diga the hosts of the place.

Autumn is probably the worst time to visit the place because it was grey, quite cold, got dark early and there wasn't any snow. Luckily it wasn't raining except on the last day which I spent indoors anyway. On the first two days I went visited all the main attractions of the city centre, on Saturday I went to Sigulda and I spent the whole Sunday enjoying a Latvian Family.

Thursday
St. Peter's Church - the view from the top was well worth the cold wind blowing in my face
Blackheads building - One of the nicest buildings I've ever seen
Dome Square - Dome square is dome square is dome square is I don't know
The Occupation Museum - I found this interesting even though I'm not usually a big fan of museums. The only pity was that there's so little about the independence events, the thing I was mostly interested in.
In the evening I spent the whole evening chatting and drinking Latvian beer with the family I was living with in the B&B. The beer wasn't bad but the chatting was better.

Friday
Alberta Street, Elizabeta street etc. to see the art nouveau area. Even though I know almost nothing about architecture it was very nice.
Freedom monument and the bridge with the padlocks. I saw the change of the guards.
Cat house and the three brothers - Some more buildings
I went for lunch at a garlic restaurant. All the items on the menu here are with garlic including the shots of vodka and the ice-cream. I pity the chefs who work there. In the evening there was a doom metal concert at the depo. Attending a Latvian doom metal concert wasn't in my plans but this was too good an opportunity to miss. The bands that played were Year Zero, Vic Anselmo, Frality, Aldevia, Ocularis Infernum.

Saturday
I went to Sigulda, a village 1hr by train away from Riga, to try the bobsleigh. The adrenalin rush was only second to the skydive. The 45 or so seconds going down the track were spent hoping that the driver knew what he was doing. It was fantastic. After the bobsleigh I went up the cable car and went for a walk in the forest on the other side of the cable car. In the evening I returned back to Riga and went to the Lido. It was difficult to get there because at first I thought I could walk there, but I soon realised that it wasn't that near and the Moscow district didn't look like the most inviting of places. The variety of Latvian food made the hassle to arrive worth it.

Sunday
I spent the whole day with Diga and Ric. In the morning I went out with Sara their Alsation dog to the lake, then in the afternoon the extended family joined for a Sunday lunch. This was a real opportunity to talk for hours about Latvia, mingle with the locals and taste the food. It kept going on from 2pm till 8pm until I had to leave.

All in all it was a very active weekend, so active that I didn't read a single page of the book I took with me A murder in the central committee and I had to write the whole diary after I came back – which is also part of the reason for the delay in the update.

Costs:

Since Klaus, Mark and I spent an extra two days in Te Anau we had to join a new Stray group to go to Invercargill. This group was travelling in a van with Catherine as their driver. The new companions were; an Irish / British couple, a British middle aged man and a German i-don’t-know-what-to-call-her in her mid-thirties. The couple were nice and friendly, the British man was too quiet to form an opinion about, and the German was funny in a stupid way. The German, Heidi, reminded me of one of my acquaintances in Dublin who happens to have a fixation with the Germans. The mannerisms and character of Heidi so closely resembled my friend's that I could predict her actions.

The only two landmarks I remember in Invercargill are the Tuatara Backpackers sign and the statue of whoever acting as a roundabout in the main street. Despite having a humungous reminder of the Tuatara I managed to forget to go and see this ancient reptile housed in the Invercargill museum.

On the first of September we travelled from Invercargill to Dunedin. In the morning I woke up early to say goodbye to Mark and Klaus who were leaving our group to catch the ferry to Steward Island. These were the two best buddies I made on the trip and the only people I spent more than a few hours with.

After a quick breakfast and a morning stroll around the city we left to Dunedin. The day was quite bland and uneventful. We stopped to explore a small cave, saw a petrified forest and tried our luck at a yellow eyed penguin hide, but there were no penguins. I spent the trip alternating between looking out of the window and reading Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, the new book I got from the Invercargill's bookshop whose anorexic attendant didn't know what a copybook was.

We arrived in Dunedin at about 6pm, just in time for the Speight's brewery tour. The tour was ok, although nothing special. You see the usual brewery stuff so if you've been on a beer tour before this isn't very different. The best part of these tours is always the beer sampling at the end. Unfortunately we were only left with an effective quarter of an hour from the planned half hour to sample 7 different brews. Of course, I tried to make the best out of it and reclaim the entry cost in beer but even drinking very fast 15 minutes is a short time. At least I tasted all 7 and went half way through the second round.

The hostel we were going to stay at didn't have any rooms available so instead they offered us a twin room in their hotel. I ended up with Heidi in the twin room, and after I returned from the brewery tour I find a bottle of wine and some fancy wrapped nachos on the sideboard table. She got these for us to divide, so after a long shower I hopped in bed and we spent the rest of the night watching Oceans 12, drinking wine and eating nachos. My initial impression of her changed just enough to drink half the bottle of wine before falling asleep.

View the complete Invercargill to Dunedin Gallery here

Coming next: Dunedin Penguin City

I'm off to Riga on Wednesday. Naturally since I'm travelling there's some inconvenience going on in the country. This time it's the NATO conference.

On another travel note, I've decided I'm going to Venezuela on February. I'm planning to buy the ticket tomorrow when I decide which airline I'm travelling with. The choice is between Air France and Iberia. While Air France is cheaper they don't allow any changes the travel dates. On the other hand, Iberia allow changes (at a cost of 165 Euros) but the ticket costs more and there's an overnight stay involved. Last Saturday I went to a travel agent and she told me that Iberia will pay for the hotel for the overnight stay, however I'm not really convinced so I've got to check with the airline office first.

In the mean time all the cat lovers and anybody in need of a smile should must visit this site ... Funny cats collected

Costs:

Even though unplanned the sheep farm visit made the extra 2 day bus trip from Te Anau to Dunedin worth doing. There are 40,000,000 sheep living in New Zealand which amounts to 10 sheep for every person. From the figures it's not difficult to imagine that these cute woolly creatures that never tire eating are a resource to New Zealand.

After welcoming us to his farm, James led us towards a shed that could have doubled as a hanger for a small Cessna. Neatly aligned by the left wall where an assortment of rubber boots marked from 3 to 12 waiting for us to wear. The shed was almost on par with the boots area in Franz Josef which wasn't anything like a sheep farm. This was the first clue that farming is done professionally here not in the rudimentary style I remember from my childhood days back home. As I was wearing the boots I was thinking how cool it would have been to help James on the farm. Not that I have a farming fetish or anything but I think that getting first hand experience in an industry, which to a certain extent is representative of part of New Zealand, is an excellent way to immerse yourself in the culture.

James called his son to drive the tractor to the shed. The 7 of us climbed in the tractor's back carriage for a tour around the sheep paddocks. This time of the year was lambing season so we went to look for any sheep giving birth.

[As soon as Sheamus (Who is Sheamus?) saw the first herd of sheep he started trembling with excitement and jumped out of the carriage. He rolled in the damp soil covering his back in mud and sprinted towards the nearest sheep sticking out Linda in her face. The bastard went to look for Linda's mother. My face flushed red in fury. It was no use calling him come back to the tractor, he wouldn't listen. When we returned back from the tour he was still nowhere to be seen and to give him a lesson I left to Invercargill without him.]

We arrived at the first paddock and as promised there was the first mamma sheep giving birth. Apparently there was a complication with the birth because the lamb was coming out the incorrect way. James hurried towards the sheep leaving the tractor's machine roaring noisily. After studying the situation closely he started returning the baby lamb back inside the mother. Sticking your hands deep inside a sheep isn't exactly my idea of holiday fun. My inclination to help on the farm vanished, and my work desk felt so reassuring. I was filming the whole show while most of my Stray mates turned their faces away from the gross operation in progress.

When James reassured himself that everything was back to normal we continued visiting the paddocks. With every herd we passed James kept his eyes open to ensure those giving birth had no complications. Fortunately he didn't have to play the midwife another time. Each time we passed a newborn sheep he sprayed with a green spray to identify the day when it was born. Most of these lambs are sold for their meat to be exported. The farmer decides which lambs to keep and which lambs to kill based on characteristics like wool quality, meat quality, sex etc. The lambs can be killed from when they're 8 weeks old, and the lambs that are born early are worth more because there's a bonus for early exports to the British market.

The impression that the farming here is professional was reinforced when James told us that he knew how many lambs each sheep was going to give birth to. He knows this by scanning each pregnant sheep to know how many lambs there were. These farms here contain thousands of sheep so administering the farm isn't a trivial task. It was interesting to learn how the farmer knows which sheep are pregnant and require scanning. During the mating season a ram is let loose in a paddock for a week. A special purpose harness with an ink pad is fitted on the ram so that when he mates with the sheep the ink stains the sheep's wool making it possible for the farmer to identify which sheep were sexed. I thought this was an ingenious idea to help in administering the farm because it reduces the scanning of so many ugly sheep that the ram bother with.

After the paddocks tour it was time for sheep shearing. The task to move the sheep from the paddocks to the shearing shed was left in the hands of the sheep dog. The dog jumped in the paddock and chased the sheep out guiding them inside the shed. The sheep were so obedient it would have made my school teachers envious. There are two different types of dogs that are used by the farmer, one guides the dogs towards the shed and the other guides the sheep inside the shed.

Before we started peeling the wool off the sheep we were given some over-clothes to avoid stinking our clothes with sheep smell. Sheep wool stinks. It's oily and the smell of the wool sticks to your hands immediately so imagine what would happen to the clothes. This time the clothes weren't comparable with the ones the glacier guides gave us but the 1970 turquoise track suit trousers still saved me the trouble of having to wash my clothes again.

I was the second person of the group to shear the sheep. James's son did most of the work handling the sheep and making sure that I didn't get kicked. All I had to do was to keep this stiff vibrating shaver steady and move it along the sheep's body. Most of the skill involved is more in holding and handling the sheep, although shaving comes in different degrees of satisfaction. I was surprised to learn that there are sheep shearing competitions where professional shearers compete to determine the fastest and most efficient sheep shaver. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this competition was invented in New Zealand considering the aptitude these people have at inventing strange sports.

Sheep shearing competitions may be strange but when I saw the yearly 'sheep industry' calendar with nude shearers and wool handlers (men and women) I was astounded. I'm not sure whether it was because of the nude people covered in wool or because I learned that are professional wool handlers. The wool handler's job is to collect the wool, sort it according to the grade, and then pack it. I can't imagine how a wool handler smells like.

After this cultural activity James invited us to his house for a cup of tea and some cookies. A rural farmer in the South Island of New Zealand was another perfect candidate for the "where am I from game" but I ended up giving the answer quickly for fear that I'd spend the night there and might be required to help a sheep giving birth. In my opinion the 100% New Zealand award should be given to the sheep farming activity. No other activity felt as authentic as this one.

I spent the rest of the evening shopping with Klaus and Mark in Invercargill. This is the southernmost village in the South Island and the gateway to Steward Island. I would have liked to visit Steward Island but I didn't have enough time to go there. I was further discouraged to visit when I learned that some people got stranded there because the ferry between Steward Island and Invercargill didn't operate due to bad weather conditions.

In the evening the three of us went to the cinema to watch Silent Hill. I appreciated how the movie recreated the feel of the game but that was the only positive thing about the film. If you've never played the game you might be better off not watching it. If you do watch it anyway and don't like it then it's all your fault – you have been warned. Rating 1.5 / 5

View the complete Sheep Shearing Gallery here

Coming next: Invercargill to Dunedin

Costs:

The Doubtful Sound tour we booked the day before for was organised by Fiordland Explorer Charters and it was $75 cheaper than Real Journey's same tour (this might be a winter only offer). This morning we were picked up from the hostel, a common occurrence around here, and started the day with a 20 minutes bus drive to Lake Manapouri. Apart from Klaus, Mark and I, there were another 12 passengers with us on the bus, most of which were travelling in couples. The first stage of the journey to the sound was crossing Lake Manapouri in a small boat squashed like illegal immigrants crossing to the dot. At least it wasn't a rubber dingy and I was the darkest one on board.

After crossing the lake we had another drive by bus and on our way we stopped at the underground Manapouri hydroelectric power station. This power station generates electricity by the flow of the water from Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. The water from the lakes falls 178 metres through the station and then flows out through the mountains to Deep Cove. The guide explained that 500 tonnes of water pass through the station at any given time, enough to fill the machine hall (in the picture) every 60 seconds. The reason the power station was built here was because of the volume of water it has access to, and its proximity to sea level.

After the interesting brief detour to the power station we arrived at Doubtful Sound. Unlike Milford Sound where the wharf was full of people this one only hosted our boat. With only 15 people on board the chatter was limited to small groups and the driver/guide was friendly and unobtrusive. It didn't take long to start appreciating the beauty of the sound. The sheer wilderness of the place. The huge mountain faces and the sparsely snow capped mountains in the distance. Doubtful Sound is 10 times bigger than Milford although it is not as popular probably because it isn't as accessible.

During the trip we alternated between staying outside enjoying the scenery in the cold wind and staying inside enjoying the complementary tea and coffee looking out of the tiny windows. Actually, the decision wasn't difficult to take. We were inside when we were speeding or it was raining, and outside the rest of the time.

The Sounds are known to contain an abundance of wildlife. In fact in other journals I read that dolphins and fur seals were a common sighting, but what I really wanted to see was the Fiordland Crested Penguin. I knew the possibility of even getting a remote glance of this elusive, almost extinct penguin was a wild dream so I wasn't expecting anything. So you can imagine my reaction when I heard the word penguin over the mumbling in the cabin. I threw open the door and abruptly made it on the deck with a complete disregard towards the rest of the people. There they where, the mighty penguins. The Fiordland Crested Penguins. I couldn't believe my eyes (or rather binoculars) and fumbled for the camera. I tried locating the tiny spot and zooming on it balancing on the rocking boat. My first attempts where blurry and the rest weren't great but at least I've got proof and a memorial reminder of what the Fiordland Crested Penguin looks like. This penguin is similar to the yellow eyed penguin that lives in the Dunedin area, but it has a crest apart from the yellow band on the eyes.

As regards the rest of the wildlife we spotted some fur seals, but they were far enough not to bother taking a photo. I didn't really mind because I already had a close encounter with the fur seals in Kaikoura. The dolphins were more stubborn and I think they must have had a particular dislike for my beard because they didn't even appear this time around. I missed them in Kaikoura and in 3 trips to the sounds. This must be something personal considering they are commonly seen here. I contented myself with the penguin sighting though which was the most memorable event of the whole trip

On this trip I learned about tree avalanches. The trees on the mountains aren't rooted on firm ground because the soil is thin and most of the roots are entangled in moss. This makes them prone to fall over because if a tree on top falls it drags the rest of the trees that are attached to it through the carpet of moss which entwines the roots of the trees together, forming a tree avalanche. The effect of these avalanches is visible on the mountain faces with patches of bare mountains rock in between the dense forest of trees.

The visibility in Doubtful sound was much better than the previous trip to Milford. The day started out with a clear sky which later started turning gray, but it was still good enough to snap pictures. The wind was cold and the rush of the water kept me reaching out for the jacket each time I went out on the deck. But all in all I couldn't complain.

Both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound are incorrectly named, because they are in fact Fiords not sounds. The difference is that a Fiord is carved out of glacier activity and a Sound is carved out of the gentler effect of water thus making the shape of the mountain valley a more rounded U rather than the V shape of the typical Fiord. The word sound however is a good mnemonic to remind you of the real sound of the fiord. At a certain point the driver turned off the engine and told us to appreciate the sound of the Fiord. The sound of the silence, the lapping water against the boat and the gush of water from the waterfalls form a symphony that enriches the experience of this place. I wondered how amazing it would have been to paddle these waters in a kayak without the noise of the engines, feeling at one with nature, squashed to insignificance by the massiveness of the mountains. This was the first time I regretted myself for coming in winter, where the kayaking opportunities are very few.

We arrived back in Te Anau at 6 and all the tourist offices (there were more than one in Te Anau) were closed, so we couldn't book the kayaking tour for Milford Sound the following day. Instead we planned to do the Key Summit trail, a day walk that starts from the Chasm in the Milford Road. On Wednesday, when we were going to start the trail we decided to go on the Milford Sound cruise once again since the weather was much better than the previous Monday.

As if the day wasn't packed enough with the Doubtful sound cruise, at 6.30 Klaus and I went to the Glow worm caves. To get to the caves we went on a short boat trip. Here while chatting with Klaus I learned about the Thermal Wonderland of Rotorua, one of the best advices of the holiday.

After a brief video introduction at the reception centre we moved to see the caves and the glow worms. These caves are still very young. The guide showed us a stalagmite that was smaller than my little finger. I couldn't restrain my giggle and for once I felt proud about the caves there are in 'the dot'.

When we arrived at the end of the cave walk we were divided in two groups to start the actual glow worm tour. We boarded a small wooden raft and made it towards the back of the cave. The trip was in pitch darkness and in complete silence to allow us to see the glow worms better.

At the end of the cave we came to the most densely populated area of glow worms and in the dark the ceiling of the cave turned into a starlit sky. When I started to focus on patches of glow worms the fluorescent dots started blurring and the image turned quite hazy. Some Pink Floyd music would have ideal to complete this psychedelic experience.

Tonight after almost two weeks on holiday I decided to cook something properly. From the supermarket stop I got a container of fresh New Zealand muscles, and cooked the muscles in a Thai sauce with coconut milk and some jasmine rice. I thought the tamarind taste in the sauce was a bit too concentrated but Klaus thought it was perfect.

View the complete Doubtful Sound Gallery here

Coming next: Invercargill

Costs:

Fiordland always featured the most spectacular photos in the magazines I read before travelling to New Zealand, so my expectations were high. Upon boarding the cruise on the sound I realised that I had discounted a nasty adversary that never features in the pictures, the bad weather and poor visibility.

Finally there was a breath of fresh air on the bus from Queenstown to Te Anau. The two folks who were with me on the bus in the previous trips stopped in Queenstown and a group of 19 replaced them. Most of the people were British and already knew each other, so they were hanging out together. I was indifferent to them, and instead made friends with Klaus and Mark, an Austrian and a lone British. Klaus was travelling around New Zealand for two months during his summer holiday break from University, and Mark was here for a year on a working holiday. The three of us were going to spend an extra two days in Te Anau, so we spent most of the time together.

The trip from Queenstown took about 2 ½ hours and at 9.30 I was having a venison pie in a café in village of Te Anau. The plan for the day was to go on a Milford Sound cruise via the Milford Road and back to Te Anau for the night in the Lake View Holiday Park Hostel

The beauty of the trip starts as soon as you leave Te Anau on the road to the Sound, the famous Milford Road. This dead end, 120km double lane road, attracts over 250,000 visitors a year and with good reason. The lonely winded road cuts through the heart of Fiordland from the undulating farmland in Te Anau, into ever wilder mountainscapes finishing at the wharf of Milford Sound. Like no other place has the work of avalanches, earthquakes and rainwater carved out such a marvellous sculpture of mountains covered with mossy forests, waterfall trickles and glassy reflecting lakes.

Along the road there are various stops where you can park to appreciate the beauty of the place. We stopped along all the main points starting from the mirror lakes whose crystal clear water reflect the snow capped mountains like a mirror, to the chasm walk. In this 20 minute (return) walk you can see cascades of water flowing through the narrow chasm along the path of a river.

The first cruise on Milford Sound was a complete waste of time and money, the visibility was appalling, the rain was lashing, and the winds were blowing. The lonely planet recommends not to be put off by a downfall because if there's no rain then the waterfalls dry out. This is only correct while you can figure out where the waterfalls are, because with the heavy rain and low clouds some mountains weren't even visible. After taking some preliminary 'prove photos' I ended up drinking the complimentary coffee and chatting with the two Irish newcomers on the bus. They gave me some suggestions on what to do in Wellington, which proved helpful later on. I prefer to rely more on advice given by travellers I meet rather than from the guidebook, for some reason it feels more trustworthy.

The cruise on Milford sound takes about 1 ½ hours. By now the weather got worse and sleeping on the way up though Milford Road didn't classify as a deadly sin. We made our way back to the hostel, and as far as big hostels go the Lake View Holiday Park topped them all. The hostel looks like soldier's barracks in the way it's laid out, occupying a vast amount of land. There were so many cabins and divisions that in the three days I spent there I always got lost on my way to my room. Here we had single rooms for hostel prices but with so many rooms available it would have been a crime not to.

I spent the evening chatting, watching some TV and drinking coffee in the kitchen. Drinking coffee in the kitchen became a cult by now. I'd go there with my good friend Sheamus and we'd watch people cook, eavesdrop on conversation to collect some gossip fodder and watch some TV.

After the kitchen rush hour was over I 'prepared' another of my gourmet meals. This time it was pitta bread with anchovies. The anchovy bones kept tickling my throat so I got fed up of them pretty soon. I turned to dessert which consisted of a can of pineapple rings. These meals apart from having zero preparation time and need no utensils also don’t require any refrigeration which is handy when you're always on the go. [Refrigerators were available in every hostel but he couldn’t be bothered.] When preparing this meal I remembered one of my granny's war time snacks - white grapes with bread. I was eating all this while watching Jamie Oliver on TV, and I could see that envious look on his face.

View the complete Milford Sound Gallery here

Coming next: Doubtful Sound / Te Anau