Scary Bananas

Very early start because today we are going to Milford Sound. Drag ourselves out of bed at stupid o'clock, stumble into town, wait in the cold.

Told by bus driver that the Milford Road is closed. Bugger. There is no other way to get to Milford Sound so we decided that we'd drive ourselves as far as Te Anau and find something to do there. So we start on what turns out to be an epic road trip.

First we head down the shore of Lake Wakatipu, which would be pretty save for the slightly damp haze. After a 2 hour drive we arrive in a very soggy Te Anau and are given many suggestions for things to do by the helpful lady at the i-Site. We decide that since it's rainy and cold we'll just stay in the car and take a trip down to Invercargill on the south coast. But first, we need food. Which turns out to be an early lunch of pretty much the best venison burger I've ever had. Much yum.

We have decided by this point that the storm from Franz Josef is now following us around the island. Which is shit. It becomes even more shit when it just won't stop raining all the way to Invercargill and twice we have to get out of the car to check that the flooding across the road isn't going to drown us. This, in Amy's words, is scary bananas.

Invercargill, we decide, is like Cleethorpes. A bit run down and sort of dodgy looking. Which means Bluff, the port settlement hanging off the end must be Immingham. We think the Grimsby analogue must have fallen into the sea. The view from the lookout in Bluff looks like this:

We have also started taking "stupid selfie of the day". Have you noticed? This is one of today's.

The drive back up to Queenstown was just as wet, with the added fun of it sort of turning into snow at some points. ARGH. Hopefully the drive to Dunedin tomorrow will be better.