Another- ABSOLUTELY -Epic 18-day adventure.

Whanganui to Fiordland return via Milford sound.

A 2700km road trip and the f350 loved every minute of it.

With such an impressive combination of trailer boat and tow vehicle we attracted a lot of very positive attention every step of the way. Lots of great conversations were had with complete strangers and sometimes we struggled to break away from them when we stopped for fuel, coffees, or food to continue our journey.

This trips crew were long term friends Kevin and Duncan from Whanganui and Wanaka, and my father Vic from Timaru. Vic inspires me at 90yrs of age and he is still out there doing it.

Kevin and I allowed 3 days travel time either way to take the pressure off and catch up with family along the way in Kaikoura and Timaru.

The road trip was amazing as we have such a beautiful country with so much variation and spectacular views around every corner.

To say I was relieved when we were safely through the Homer tunnel and down into Milford Sound would be an understatement.

The engine breaking on the truck was spectacular, and I wouldn’t like to attempt the decent into the Fiord with such a big rig with a combined weight over 10.5 tons without it.

The views were epic, and it’s hard to describe just how special this part of NZ is.

We had always planned to arrive later in the evening to avoid most of the outbound tourist traffic on the road so on arrival we spent a couple of hours setting up the boat. Pumped up the Takacat tender, which exceeded my expectations overall over the entire trip. I have no issues recommending this option for those looking for an inflatable tender.

We then overnighted in the boat on the hard and launched early the next morning.

The boat ramp at freshwater basin was excellent but the channel from the basin to the main sound is narrow and leaves little room for error especially at low tide.

We trolled lures as we headed south from Milford hoping for a tuna, as we did whenever we moved between sounds, but unfortunately they eluded us

Overall, we had amazing weather with only one day of true west coast rain which ignited the waterfalls which were impressive. We spent most of our trip in George and Bligh sounds and the days just disappeared. We managed to get a spiker up the Wild native’s river and shot another on a slip which despite my best efforts I could not recover. I can also personally recommend the benefits of getting back to the boat and out of the bush by dark as things get very interesting otherwise.

The diving was a highlight for us all with the crystal-clear water, out the front of the sounds, and the amazing Black and White coral under the freshwater layer in the inner sounds. We ate ourselves sick with crayfish, cod and venison over the trip and only kept a few crayfish for family and friends and a couple of feeds of fish to take home.

On the final day as we ran back north to Milford, we got a chance to push Absolutely in a solid 3m following sea with 30-50knots of cross winds which provided us with an exhilarating ride and the boat excelled in the conditions it was built to handle.