Invercargil to Te Anua

Left Invercargil this morning after dropping a fellow backpacker at the local supermarket, he was heading to Dunedin so unfortunately the wrong way to me. He had given me some info on where to stay in Queenstown and advised me to book ahead – as it happened I had to book for 2 nights minimum and also I couldn't get in till the 22nd and 23rd so I also rang ahead and booked 2 nights at Te Anua where I was heading today.
The drive out of town followed the Southern Scenic route and the drive was quiet, rolling hills and very windy. I stopped on the was at Colac Bay and watched a couple of kite surfers out on the water. The wind was really strong and having spoke to one of them they said it was constantly like this, again the beach was virtually deserted, mind you the fact that you had to lean into the wind at 45deg just to stay stood up was probably a good reason for this!
Further along the coast I stopped again at Gemstone Beach, the beach here gets 'gemstones' thrown up onto it by the constant pounding seas, today the beach was covered with sand but it changes each tide and some days is just all pebbles many of which are translucent or shiny, hence the beach name.
The road now turned inland and began to head into the towering foothills of the Fiordland National Park, the landscape changed, huge towering mountains surround glaciated valley and tundra like plains in between and it is quite spectacular. I arrived at the hostel around 3ish and checked in. It's actually about 9km (5m) outside of Te Anua on the side of rolling hill, the location is fantastic, the main building is built of wood like an Alpine Lodge and houses the lounge area with huge open log fire places,the kitchen and laundry and even a mezzanine level pool table area. The 'bedrooms' are all in wooden cabins slightly lower down the hill each sleeping 4-6 people and with their own bathrooms. The views across the valley to the rugged mountains beyond is stunning. I was sat updating the blog in the lounge area when Peter and Jane, two of the people from the Hostel in Invercargill turned up as well, we chatted again and found we were both going to Milford Sound tomorrow abait on different boats. We sat and chatted till around 10pm then turned in as We had a 6:30am start tomorrow to get to Milford Sound.