learned that although all the inlets around this area were named as sounds, this was in fact incorrect as Sounds are made by the sea cutting the channels, whereas a fjord is a flooded glacier valley. The scenery was splendid, lots of huge waterfalls and equally huge mountains and rock faces!! From the jetty out to the Tasman Sea is 22 km, and definitely ranks amongst the best boat trips of our trips so far. It was getting to late afternoon by the time we reached the sea, and the sun glistened majestically on the calm waters. We pottered around the fjord’s mouth for a while before heading back, at which point we switched to the back of the boat to get out of the wind, as recommended by the guy we bought the tickets from!! The highlight of the journey back was our first colony of fur seals having a thoroughly relaxing time on the rocks nearby, seemingly un-bothered by the near constant stream of curious visitors on boats of various sizes!! A very close encounter with another big waterfall was the highlight

of the remainder of the trip, and then we headed back to the hostel. Because we hadn’t planned to go on a boat that afternoon we’d not eaten since breakfast, and were starving. A large sized portion of noodle soup, curry and rice sorted that out pretty quickly!! We were amazed to find that our bongo had been joined in the car park by around 10 other campervans - it was a proper tight squeeze!!

The next morning we headed back up the valley as far as the Divide, to walk a little of the Routeburn Track, one of New Zealand’s most famous multiple day tramps. The whole thing takes 3 - 4 days, but we settled for an hour or so, and then took a detour up to Key Summit, a 918 m high peak with great views down the three valleys and of the surrounding mountains. It was quite a steep climb, but well worth it, the views were stunning, and there was a great self guided nature trail at the top. After