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.

Shawn the Prawn and his delicious little friends...

Our first planning session in months is underway. Well, I say underway. This is Amy and Claire doing useful stuff:

They're looking up useful things like hostels and things to do at the many, many places we're going to visit. This is what I was doing:

Because all of our planning sessions need to be soundtracked by the brilliance that is Howard Shore. And then it all just degenerated into silliness. Beak the Kiwi got a mind of her own (or rather, Claire gave up doing serious bits):

And then I found the most excellent thing ever when trying to find things to do in Taupo while Claire's throwing herself out of a plane. (Have I mentioned about Claire throwing herself out of a plane? I'm going to wait at the bottom and take pictures of her screaming). It is called the Huka Prawn Park. We are amused:

"If learning about a day in the life of Shawn the Prawn doesn't fire your imagination, dine on some of Shawn's delicious little friends in the adjacent riverside restaurant." Gotta love this Rough Guide.

And then we adjourned for lunch. Which lasted about 3 hours. Then the fun of booking began. So far we've managed to get the hostels and most of the activity/additional things booked for the first week. So the first few days look like this:

• 28th July - Arrive at Christchurch. Be jet-lag zombies.
• 29th July - Slob around Christchurch. Continue to be jet-lag zombies.
• 30th July - Catch the TranzAlpine Scenic train from Christchurch across the Southern Alps to Greymouth. Pick up the car, then do some sightseeing - up north to the Pancake Rocks and then south to spend the night at Franz Josef.
• 31st July - Trip to Fox Glacier. It will be epic. And cold, probably. Very, very cold.
• 1st August - Drive down to Queenstown. Spend the afternoon wandering around the town and admiring the cold, cold views.
• 2nd August - Take a day trip down to Milford Sound (not booked yet). Try not to squee at all the pretties.
• 3rd August - Drive east over to Dunedin. There's not a lot there, so it'll be a nice relaxed day.
• 4th August - Drive north up to Kaikoura. Various stops on the way, including the Moeraki Boulders, which are awesome. It's a 6.5 hour drive, so Amy and Claire will no doubt collapse when we get there.

My debit card doesn't know what's hit it and we've only just done the first week! All the excitement.