We awoke this morning to more cloudy skies and occasional rain.  After breakfast and checking out of our cottage, we pointed the truck toward Queenstown.

One of many sheep farms along the way…

Stopping for lunch…

Approaching Lake Wakatipu…

After about three hours, we arrived in Queenstown.  We checked in to our hotel and got settled.  Below is a picture from our room balcony.

We then walked around downtown Queenstown a little.  We went to a tourist information centre and booked a jet boat tour for tomorrow afternoon on the Dart River in Glenorchy at the top of the lake, so we’re crossing our fingers that the rain stays away!

Below are some photos from our walk around Queenstown.

Here is our hotel, built into the side of the hill.  Our room is on the sixth floor, which is actually the same level as the parking lot around the back, which was very convenient.

This photo is taken from the beach just down from the hotel.  The sky is starting to clear, which is a welcome sign.  This photo is one of my favourites.

And I suppose it’s not as cold as it looks, because these guys were swimming!

We awoke early so we could head out to Milford Sound (which is actually a fjord, not a sound) before it gets too busy.  When we set out, it was obvious that this was going to be our first rainy day in New Zealand.  However, I was told that Milford is still spectacular in the rain, because without the rain, you don’s see the waterfalls coming down the mountain faces.  I suppose the ideal situation would have been for it to rain heavily in the morning before we arrived, and then clear up for our cruise, but that was not to be.

Before heading out, I snapped a couple of shots of our cottage in Te Anau.

Following are photos from the drive to Milford Sound.

As we drove deeper into fiordland, the clouds got thicker and the rain a little heavier.

We saw a lot of road work along the way.  Apparently, about two weeks ago, the Milford Road was closed for nearly a week, after heavy rains washed out many sections, stranding a lot of tourists in Milford Sound for the week with no way out.  I suppose those who came in by bus could have hired an airplane or helicopter, but those with rental cars would have been stranded until the only road in was repaired.

It is easy to see how this road can wash out.  We drove through several flooded sections as the rain poured off the mountains.

To this point, the road was winding its way up, down and around the various mountains.  This one they tunnelled through.

Sitting next to the tunnel entrance, while waiting for out turn to enter (like many of the bridges, the tunnel is only a single lane of traffic), we noticed this large piece of ice at the bottom of the mountain.  Considering summer has just finished and we’re getting into fall, I didn’t expect to see this here.

After arriving in Milford Sound, which is basically just a wharf with a bunch of small cruise boats at the end of the fjord, we checked in for our cruise.  We booked with Mitre Peak Cruises, because they operate the smallest boats of all of the operators, which generally means it’s less crowded, and they can get their boats into tighter places.

Our boat is the one to the left of the larger vessel that just backed out of the slip.

Following are some pictures from our cruise.

The normal cruise includes a trip out of the fjord, past the lighthouse, and into the Tasman Sea.  Unfortunately, the captain felt it was a little too rough for that today.

On the way back up the fjord, we saw some seals on the rocks.

Near the end of our cruise, we stopped at the Milford Sound Underwater Observatory.  This attraction is basically an observation room, which has been sunk into the waters of Milford Sound, where you can view native marine life from below.  We were told that occasionally you even see sharks and dolphins coming by, although we didn’t see any.

Below are a few short video clips.

In case you’re interested in seeing what Milford Sound looks like on a rare sunny day, I bought the postcard.

On the drive back to Te Anau, it was raining heavily, so we didn’t stop in very many places, but below are some photos.

Even though it was raining, Milford Sound is an amazing place.  I highly recommend it for any trip to New Zealand.

After breakfast and checking out of the motel, our plan was to quickly visit Baldwin Street before leaving Dunedin for Te Anau.

Baldwin Street is known as the steepest street in the world, and I wanted to walk up it.

While at Baldwin Street, we met a local resident, Dave Kernahan, who currently holds the record for the most times climbing up the hill.  He climbs this hill 30 times per day, and the souvenir shop at the base of the street has posted a number of newspaper articles about his frequent hill climbs.

After climbing the hill with Dave, he offered to show us some of his favourite parts of Dunedin that tourists rarely find.

After winding our way up a series of narrow gravel roads, we found ourselves looking at the best vistas in the area.  The following photos were taken from on top of the hill that holds Dunedin’s television and radio transmitter.  I thought our views yesterday from Lanarch Castle were good, but from this location, we could actually see the entire Otago Peninsula, which takes over an hour to drive along, including the castle and penguin beach we visited the day before.

Unfortunately, after spending a few unplanned hours touring the area with our new friend, it was time to head for Te Anau.  We probably could have spent an extra day or two in Dunedin, but that will have to wait for a future trip.

The drive to Te Anau took about four hours, and took us past countless sheep farms, as well as a fair number of farms raising cattle and deer.

As we got closer to Te Anau, the skies began to get cloudy, and it looked like we were in for rain tomorrow.  Of course, in this part of the country, rain is generally expected.

Once in Te Anau, we gassed up the truck and checked in to our accommodations.  We had a nice little one-bedroom cottage in the country, a few miles out of town.