Day 24 - 26 (February 20 - 22) - Invercargill, Colac Bay, Te Anau, Milford Sound

Day 24

Today I had my perfect morning. While everyone was still asleep, I sat alone in the sun with a hot coffee, painted my nails, and had an amazing view of Porpoise Bay. And as the highlight, I got to see dolphins jumping in the water again (this time with photo evidence). This is how every day should start for me.

In the morning, Lea also took a cute bath in the sink and enjoyed seeing herself in the mirror. It was adorable.

But now it was time to check out of the campsite and continue on to Invercargill for some errands.

On the way, we stopped at the southernmost point of New Zealand, Slope Point, for a quick photo.

Arriving in Invercargill, Tim went shopping at PAK'nSAVE as usual, and I did something else with the kids. We delivered a letter to the post office, stopped at every construction site along the way to watch diggers and concrete mixers, and eventually ended up in a bookstore where we looked at seemingly every children's book. Mattis was excited about all the books and wanted to buy them all. I secretly bought one for his birthday. For dinner, we had fish and chips, as always when we eat out. It was delicious as well. Invercargill is otherwise not worth mentioning. Nothing special.

We found a freedom campground not far away in Colac Bay as our sleeping place. It was quiet, right by the rocky beach. While it was drizzling lightly, we took an evening walk on the beach and found sparkling shell fragments and beautiful paua shells again (just like in Mangamaunu). Mattis diligently collected stones in a shell as a bowl, repeatedly dumping them out and refilling (and our snake was, of course, there).

Day 25

The morning was sunny before it became very windy. So we decided to look for a nice café for lunch and found the Orepuki Beach Café not far from Colac Bay. It was a really cute house and very lovingly decorated. Mattis and I had cake for lunch. J Carrot cake and cappuccino for me, and chocolate fudge and fluffy milk for Mattis. Tim ordered wine and a seafood chowder with homemade bread. The carrot cake, the chowder, and the bread (almost everything) were sensational. So delicious. After trying once, Mattis didn't want to stop eating the soup. Our little gourmet. Lea watched closely what we were eating.

Afterward, we headed to Te Anau, into the Fiordland. We drove on the Southern Scenic Route again and had beautiful and varied views along the way. We stopped for some nice pictures every now and then.

Mattis and Tim also enjoyed the car ride and happily moved to the music (Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake). Funny.

When we arrived in downtown Te Anau, it was already 6 pm. After a short consultation at the iSite (information center), we decided to book a trip with realjourneys for the next day to Milford Sound (the most famous fjord). It was quite expensive, but we didn't want to miss out. And Mattis was already very excited, especially for the bus ride.

Since the tour was starting early the next morning, we stayed at a campsite in the town (Te Anau Lakeview Kiwi Holiday Park, $50). The park was really great. Especially the facilities with hot showers were a dream. We chose a pitch right next to the playground, which Mattis was very happy about. Mattis immediately explored the entire playground, and Lea watched Mattis very closely. They both were so cute together.

After everyone had showered, it was already very late, around 10 pm, when the kids went to bed. We fell asleep immediately.

Day 26

Yeah, our first real tourist activity. The bus was supposed to depart at 9:50 am. For our standards, we had to get up pretty early at 7:30 am. Everything went smoothly, and we were right on time at the departure point at 9:30 am, with 2 kids. I was proud of us.

The weather promised to be good with a mix of sun and clouds (which is not often the case in the Fiordland).

In the bus, Tim, Lea, and I sat on one side, and Mattis voluntarily sat on the other side next to a boy (about 6 years old) from Tahiti who spoke French. We had already briefly met the boy and his family (4 children in total) at the campsite. Mattis was very happy to sit next to the boy. Lea quickly fell asleep on Tim's lap.

Once our bus ride started and we could enjoy the first views, we appreciated the bus's panoramic windows and glass roof. The seats were also facing the window, so we had an optimal view. Whoever designed it really put a lot of thought into it. It was perfect.

The journey from Te Anau to Milford Sound is 120 km on Milford Sound Road. Unfortunately, the road is currently heavily damaged from Cascade Creek onwards, and the last 44 km are single-lane and can only be driven by tourist buses in convoys at fixed times. That's also why we decided to take a guided tour.

The bus stopped at beautiful viewpoints where everyone could get off. The first stop was at a large field with golden grass and a view of the mountains.

Next, we stopped at Mirror Lakes. In this small lake, the mountains were beautifully reflected. It was a nice sight, but with the countless other tourists, it didn't have a special charm.

Then we arrived at Cascade Creek, where our bus joined a long line of buses. This is where the convoy was scheduled to start at 12:30 pm. During the half-hour wait, we walked around the Cascade Creek river. The convoy started on time.

Now we came to the best part of the whole tour - the last 44 km down to Milford Sound were fascinating with spectacular nature. The most impressive were the towering cliffs up to 1000m on both sides of the bus. Along the way, we also saw waterfalls, green forests with completely moss-covered trees, and snow on the mountaintops.

In the meantime, Mattis and the French boy (now the older brother, maybe 8 years old) tried to communicate. Mattis kept saying "waterfall," Tim translated it for the boy, and the boy showed Mattis the snow on the mountains. At some point, the French boy pointed out waterfalls and snow to Mattis in German words. Totally cute. Mattis was so taken with the two boys.

Otherwise, Mattis was almost exclusively occupied with eating during the many hours of the bus ride. Here an apple, there a sandwich, here a snack bar.

When we arrived at Milford Sound, I (or actually only me) was curious if there really were as many sandflies as it was said. We had bought mosquito repellent spray for Mattis in the morning and were wearing long clothes and a buff neck scarf. But there were actually no sandflies, neither at the stops along the way nor at Milford Sound. Very good.

We went directly from the bus to the boat (1.5-hour cruise) and went straight to the deck. Many of the other tourists had lunch below deck. So at the beginning, we had a lot of space and could enjoy the clear view of the fjord. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful, as were the waterfalls on the cliffs. We got very close to one waterfall, almost being able to touch the water. That was cool. But there were quite a few people on board, which made it not as romantic as it could be with a small boat. And Mattis was mainly occupied with looking for the "boys," so he kept switching from the upper deck to the lower deck, and one of us had to follow. But it was sweet how excited Mattis was about the "boys." Lea slept for most of the time on the boat and only woke up at the end.

We had to get back on the bus at the end of the boat cruise, and then it took 2.5 hours to return, so we were back in Te Anau at 6 pm. At the beginning, Mattis still looked at his Pixi books with the "boy," but after half an hour, both fell asleep, completely exhausted. We had to wake Mattis up in Te Anau. But when he saw the playground and the beautiful weather, he was wide awake again and started playing immediately.

We played for a while. Lea swayed on a fantastic double swing with Tim and me taking turns, and Mattis slid down like crazy and climbed on various structures. It was once again a really cool playground where even adults feel like playing. Mattis and I enjoyed the parallel slides, one on the blue slide and one on the yellow slide.

To end the day, we treated ourselves to some street food at Bao Nao, where we had loaded fries Vietnamese (fries with Vietnamese vegetables on top) and bao (dumplings filled with beef). We found it incredibly delicious, so we ordered 2 more baos, this time with rabbit and beef again. Mattis also liked the meat a lot.

We spent the night back at the same campsite in Te Anau as the previous night. It was a long but beautiful day for all of us. Our conclusion of the trip: It was definitely worth it, but it would have been even more unforgettable if we could have done it without the bus company.