Follow that van

The drive to Milford sound was long, but broken up by the amazing scenery at every turn. It took pretty much the whole day, but was well worth it. I think its safe to say that we have both been a lot more impressed with the south island than the north, it has a little bit of everything, Mountians, flats farm lands, beaches, rainforests, cliffs, rivers, waterfalls, well... you get the idea.

After driving until sundown we decided to stay at one of the department of Conservation camps that line the road up to milford. The camps are basically just chunks of land where you allowed to camp, you pay your money into an honesty box and pitch your tent. If your lucky, the site has a toilet, and if your really lucky, it has other people staying there.

As every site we'd driven past looked deserted, when we saw a sign on the road for a campsite, and saw that a campervan was heading down towards it, we decided to follow. After a 8km drive down an unmade road, it turned out that the camper was not stopping, but infact visiting the most remote petrol station you've every seen. It all turned out good though, as the petrol station also had a campsite, and lots of other people, so we felt much happier about pitching our tent. It turned out to be a nice little place, built as a camp in the 30's when they were bui9lding a road up to milford sound. It was on a side road that was intended to cut accross the southern alps, but as it was they never finished the road, but the camp remained.