We had a leisurely morning, went into town to get a drink and had an early lunch, boiled eggs and soldiers to be precise.

At 12.30, we got picked up by the Real Journeys bus, and then got onto another, which left for Milford Sound at about 1. Chris was our driver, and as it's about three hours driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound, we were glad we could sit back and relax.

Chris stopped a few times, pointing out things of interest, such as the cabbage tree, so called because Captain Cook (yep, him again) and his crew cooked the leaves and thought it tasted like... cabbage.

We drove through the Eglinton valley, which is a kind of prequel to the sounds, with its hills and lakes. We stopped at the Mirror Lakes, where there was a sign with reverse script you should be able to read in the water, but as there was too much wind, the water rippled and we couldn't read it.

We stopped at Knob's Flat (knobs are, in fact, little hills of moraine left by glaciers) for a 'comfort stop'. We then went on to Lake Gunn, where we saw our first 'hanging valley'. A hanging valley is created when a main glacier cuts off a tributory glacier, so it can't completely shape the valley bottom.

At the Divide, the landscape changed dramatically, from lush valleys to towering snowy mountains. This is also an avalanche zone in winter, they have to close the road sometimes to clear it. We stopped at Monkey Creek, where we had views of Mt Talbot, Mt Crosscut and Mt Christina. Chris said you could drink the water, so we had a sip and Keiron nearly pushed me in...

The Homer tunnel, built in the 1930ies, made traffic to Milford a lot easier. Before, even the postman had to get over the steep Homer's Saddle. According to legend, the postman even took over a bike once for a little girl's birthday. At present though, you just wait for the sensor-operated traffic lights to go green, and you drive straight through.

Our next stop was the Chasm, a spectacular jumble of rocks through which a raging waterfall flowed. And then, almost as an afterthought, we arrived at Milford...

We could see the cruise ships, with a foggy Mitre Peak in the distance. We checked in and got on board of the Milford Mariner. There were about 35 of us, plus the crew, and as the ship can take about 60 people, we had lots of room.

Anne, the team leader, welcomed us, we were given safety instructions and were told the names of all the crew, which I promptly forgot. We got a look at our cabin, where we got all excited about having a real bed, with crispy sheets. Very crispy in fact, they made a lot of noise.

But then we got out to admire the views and munch on a complimentary muffin. It was brilliant - and the views weren't too bad either... Near vertical cliffs, tranquil waters (thank goodness), waterfalls and the odd fur seal. Milford Sound is actually a fiord, not a sound, something to do with how it was formed but I can't for the life of me remember.

We anchored for the night at Harrison Cove and went out for a trip in the tendercraft. Our driver told us about trees (beeches with very shallow roots can only survive because of the rainfall - it rains about 6 metres per year!) and lots more nature stuff.

Back at the boat, dinner was nearly ready and Keiron and I had a great bottle of wine (Montana 2004 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc). The pea and ham soup was delicious. There was loads of hearty food: kumara, pumpkin, salmon, lamb... all very jummie. We were joined by Peggy and Ken from Boston, who were celebrating Peggy's 70th birthday.

After dinner, we had a look outside but everything was pitch black. We played a game of scrabble (I won) and went to bed... a real bed!