Now that all is sorted, we are ready to do the most of the time remaining before heading to Dunedin. As we arrived late last night, we took our time at Kinloch and explored the estuary of the Dart River. Before heading out, Nina and I felt it was time to acknowledge the bravery and generally good behaviour of our Tamariki and present them with their Taonga, their Ponamu necklaces.

After the first 10 km of hoping not to rip Timmy apart on the shoddy gravel road, we were back on tarmak and ready to cover some distance. Almost. Just one more stop at Lake Wakatipu for a splash and Lunch and off we were.

The KM ticked up and the landscape changed. But the most memorable time came late this afternoon. We finally picked up our first hitchhiker, Taiga. A guy from Japan hiking the lenght of New Zealand, he has been walking for over 100 days and almost at the end of his journey. We dropped him off at Te Anau to re-stock his supplies and went off further down the Milford Road to make camp for the night.

After a rougher start, the day at Milford turned out to be an absolute stunner, with brilliant sunshine and reasonably calm seas. We enjoyed the cruise and also the leasurly trip back on the Milford Road. We passed through the tunnel once more and found another splendit DOC campsite along the road. A bit crazy to realise that I still work more than half a day every weekday night throughout this adventure.