Kepler Track, Milford Sound.

Hello. So, let's see where I left off. I had set up my tent at the free campsite in Clifden, near this old suspension bridge. A couple of other cars pulled up, and I went fishing in the Waiau River. No luck, so I went back up to the campsite to cook my sausages. there were 4 Israelis sleeping in a tent which was maybe 2.5 times bigger than mine, and then there were two from Holland who had a mansion of a tent, which easily could've fit my tent in their porch. That's right, their tent had a porch.
There was a fire-pit and eventually we collectively got the fire going--except for the 2 Germans who showed up and decided to be anti-social. It was a nice fire, and it was interesting to talk to everyone there, some of whom had just come off the Milford Track, New Zealand's most famous (and wettest) hiking track.
Next morning, I packed up just in time to partner up with two other cyclists to do (peaceful) battle with the vicious headwind. We slowly crawled forwards, probably averaging around 10 kph (walking pace). I'm not going to go into great detail over those 8 hours of suffering, but by the end of the day (80 km away, in Manapouri) I was tired enough to split a motel room with one of the guys, coming to $40 each. I also had an expensive meal at the pub, to complete my night of luxury.
I lazily went along to Te Anau the next day, simply 20km away, stopping to go fishing in the Waiau River again, this time in the section that was used for part of the Anduin River in The Lord Of The Rings. Again, no luck. Rolled into Te Anau with another cycle-tourist, Bob from Canada. I went around town with him, and then he took a ferry to look at the Glow-worm caves here.
The next day, I messed around town, and found out about doing the Kepler Track, another of NZ's "Great Walks". Bought food, packed my bag and set off the next day @ 7:30am. I decided that due to the awkward spread of campsites along the trail (and the cost of huts being $40), I would do it in two days, and camp. As the total track length is 70km, this led to two fairly long days. However, it was absolutely amazing!



That night, it rained a lot. I woke up, and it kept raining until 12:30pm. Two bridges had been washed away, so we had to wait until the creeks weren't in flood. So, I got off to a much later start than preferred the second day, finishing the track in the evening.
I spent a couple of days just wandering around Te Anau after that. Yesterday was eating breakfast in Hostel when I met someone with an extra seat who was going up to Milford Sound that day. So, half an hour later, I was packed and piled into Jana ("Yana", from Germany)'s car. Got up there (150kms), and walked around. Stayed in a campsite, and that night fought off a gargantuan possum who wanted my bread I had foolishly left outside my tent. I heard something snuffling around at about 1AM, and opened the door-flap to find a big ugly possum there. I hit him with my shoe, and he sort of shuffled off, only to return about a minute later. We repeated this about 5 times, until he finally got the message.
Thew next morning, I decided to go on a cruise out on the sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea. That was really amazing. I saw seals, and, on the way back, a pod of Dolphins who swam next to the boat and surfed on the Bow waves.
Okay, I have to stop now. Heading to Queenstown next.
-Ben