Te Anau and Milford Sound

We drove the 2 hours from Queenstown to Te Anua to find a beautiful day, venison pie, ducks, and you guessed it... a playground!

After the playground we found our hotel (rental house) and tried to get inside. There was a bit of a problem through. The owner forgot to leave us a key. Unfortunately our phones were dead so we had a bit of a dilemma. How do we get a hold of the owner? We were in a little neighborhood so there wasn't a store to go into and borrow their phone so I summoned up the courage to knock on a door and use the phone. The very nice people let us use the phone and about 5 minutes later the owner came by apologizing for her forgetfulness.

Once settled (with some laundry done) we headed to the Fat Duck for some dinner followed by a good nights sleep.  The following morning we were off to see the fiords in Milford Sound.

I can't remember if these pictures are from the drive to Te Anau or Milford sound. I guess it doesn't really matter.. they are just beautiful!

We were on the early side for our scheduled boat tour, so we stopped at the Chasm. A five minute walk and we saw this:

Once we got to Milford Sound, we found our boat and boarded. On the boat we had lunch, and got to see some beautiful views (part way through it rained and was foggy, but what we did see was great.)

Smile:

I took this picture to show Elyse's great imagination. She was having her straw and a popsicle stick talk to each other and was having a great time- who needs an iPad?

On the way back from Milford Sound we stopped at Mirror Lakes. In the pictures you can see how it got it's name.

You can't tell in the pictures, but at this time I was not feeling good. We got back in the car and I proceeded to throw up a couple of times- not fun. I thought it was car sickness, but it did not go away for the rest of the afternoon. I think I ate something bad on the boat's buffet :( 

I was in bed not moving while Toby went out and got groceries (with home-girl Anastasia and Elyse) and got dinner ready. (Thanks Toby)

I was thinking of all the worst case scenarios. At one point there was no way I could get in the car, so I was thinking we would have to stay an extra day in Te Anau and then have to drive 7 or 8 hours to Christchurch after that instead of breaking it up. Luckily I was feeling better when I woke up and we didn't have to alter our plans. All I've got to say is don't get the buffet on the Milford Sounds cruise.