We woke up to our early alarm as well as a bitterly cold, frosty morning which made us not want to get out of bed. We quickly made some toast for breakfast and then made the short journey to 'Milford Sound' to book a cruise. We enquired at the 'Southern Discoveries' desk which charged $73 for a two hour fifteen minute cruise but we decided to check out the competition at the 'Jucy Cruize' desk. It turned out that 'Jucy' didn't have a boat for whatever reason so the company was directing potential customers to 'Southern Discoveries' anyway. However, as the price of a 'Jucy' cruise was $65 I thought there was no harm in asking if we could pay that price, which turned out to be a difficult question as the member of staff diplomatically just pointed at the price card on the desk. We then obviously chose to pay the 'Jucy' price of $65 even though we got the $73 'Southern Discoveries' cruise! Andrew decided to make a visit to the toilet just as everyone was called forward to board the boat, which was his usual trick. We got on board and helped ourself to a complimentary cup of coffee. We immediately began to cruise through 'Milford Sound' and so we drank up and went to check out the view on the top deck. We didn't last outside all that long as the wind chill factor nearly froze every extremity! However, we immediately saw the 161 metre high 'Lady Bowen Falls' followed by 'Mitre Peak' which was unmissable at 1,682 metres high. It was so-named because the shape of the peak closely resembled that of a Bishop's mitre or headdress. The boat slowly cruised through the sound and pulled quite close to the rocky shore at one point as a couple of penguins were visible, yet they were tiny. We reached 'Dale Point' which was the entrance to 'Milford Sound' as evidenced by the fact that the water became quite rough. The boat turned around at this point and 'Seal Rock' became clearly visible up ahead as three male seals lay atop the rock. As we approached 'Stirling Falls', which dropped 155 metres, the boat moved close enough to spray those people who were standing on the deck. We noticed a few excitable people on the lower deck and soon came to realise that dolphins had been spotted up ahead. Our boat picked up the pace and before long there was a huge pod of dolphins swimming alongside the boat. I was so excited and couldn't quite believe how big they were and how far they jumped out of the water. They followed the boat for quite a distance and Andrew was happy being the photographer. Our cruise came to an end and we were really glad we had made the journey to Milford as it was such a beautiful place and a great way to encounter the marine life of New Zealand. 
 
We walked back to our campervan and quickly made a sandwich before we drove to 'The Chasm' . As we began the short bush walk to 'The Chasm' we spotted a couple of Kea, which are the world's only alpine parrot and are mostly olive-green. They were quite large and extremely inquisitive as one started pecking away at the rubber sole of a shoe. We continued on our walk and soon heard gushing water as the river passing through the area had shaped the rocks to create a wonderful piece of sculpture, 'The Chasm'. The photograph we took did not do the thing justice as it looked massive in real-life. We returned to our campervan and drove to 'Te Anau' where we stopped to fill up on fuel. We then chose to follow the 'Southern Scenic Route' to 'Invercargill'. On the way we stopped at the historic 'Clifden Suspension Bridge' which was built in 1899 to span the Waiau River at a length of 111.5 metres long. However, it was unfortunately closed to pedestrian traffic in April 2010 due to safety concerns so we were unable to walk across the bridge. We made a very brief stop at 'McCracken's Rest' which would have been a spectacular lookout point if not for the fact that it was raining and very grey . A little further along the road we pulled up at 'Orepuki Beach' which claimed to have gemstones scattered on the sand, but as much as I looked I didn't find a single one! Andrew spotted a wooden door up on a cliff side as we were walking along the beach and it turned out to be a house carved out of sandstone, which looked rather peculiar. It was then a short drive to 'Invercargill' but we had difficulty finding a campsite as the site seemed to have been turned into an industrial park. We saw a McDonald's sign so we went to the drive-thru whilst we checked the map for another campsite. We found it weird that there was a prison opposite McDonald's and wondered whether the inmates could smell it from the cell block! We finished eating and drove to the 'Top 10 Holiday Park' where the member of staff gave us a 10% discount out of generosity. We parked up for the night and got wrapped up for bed as it was bitterly cold.