From Milford Sound, we spent a night in Te Anau and then decided to take the long, long way back to Queenstown by looping down around the Catlins, the South Island's southeast coastline. Our strange little Frankenstein rental car, which we've nicknamed "white lightning," hung in there for mile after verdant mile.

The car window becomes a frame for all the beauty you pass as you drive through miles of fields, a blur of chartreuse and emerald. Green surrounds you, broken up by nothing but thousands of sheep, lackadaisically walking, grazing, standing, chewing. Above you is only the still blue sky, interrupted by the occasional grey rain cloud.  

Along the way, we stopped to take photos of old bridges and walk along windy beaches. We hiked to the lighthouse on Nugget Point. At 4:30 p.m. sharp, the lowest tide point that day, we walked through knee-high surf to enter the Cathedral Caves, some of the longest sea caves in the world.

At another beach, I searched for penguins, specifically the elusive yellow-eyed, but sadly never saw them. We did spot Hector's dolphins jumping and flipping in the surf. A few brave souls even ventured chest-deep into the frigid water to swim alongside them. 

We ended our day with humongous burgers in Invercargill. All in all, a day well spent.