The sunrise in Invercargill was beautiful. Sorry, no pictures, dear reader I was without my camera. In truth I was only out of bed to move the car from the overflow car park. Once that was done, it was back to apartment to commence packing. The drive today is a relatively easy one and brief in duration, Invercargill to Te Anau is around 2 hours, depending on which route you choose. We travelled via Manapouri which has its own lake to rival Te Anau, so says the guidebook.
The road was sealed all the way, thankfully; my teeth are still rattling after the extended sections of gravel road back from The Catlins yesterday. It was also very quiet with very little traffic and the logging trucks and tractors all appeared to be heading in the opposite direction. Do they know something? We are heading into some light rain but there will be no complaints after the excellent weather we've enjoyed since Christchurch.
The landscape varied markedly the further we drove. The wide plains gave way to obvious glacial landscape with steep, sharp sided valleys. For a land known for its sheep there are also plenty of dairy cattle, although less per acre providing sheep with dominant numbers. There was also the occasional farm of beef cattle, red deer and alpacas. Venison is a feature on menus across New Zealand and I love it. Agriculture is the main form of commerce outside of tourism.
Speaking of which, the number of tourists travelling by bicycle, as in touring bicycle, is mind blowing. This is not flat terrain. Now I love my bike as you know, dear reader, but there is no way I would attempt to tour this mountainous country on a bicycle.
On the drive we passed the Big Totara Walk. We didn't stop, we didn't even pause, I mean a big tree is, well, a big tree. OK, they are also tall, hence today's title and very old, like Crowded House who released Tall Trees in 1991. Enjoy.
We stopped at Manapouri for a late breakfast and in my case, a bad coffee, before walking a part of the lake shoreline, known as Fraser's Beach. The town itself is populated by accommodation options, a café, pub and servo and not much else.
 |
| Maybe the guidebooks were right. |
The lake is quite beautiful. Serene and quiet with little disturbance except for seaplanes further on; their sound is carried across the water to us. The only other thing to disturb peace is the occasional boat, ferrying tourists to different vantage points. The water is crystal clear.
 |
| Fraser's Beach |
After our brief walk, we drove to Te Anau to see if our accommodation would be ready - we were very early. Exceeding our expectations, our studio was available so we dropped our bags and went in search of a place for dinner, having been warned that the town was at capacity and it might be difficult to secure a booking.
 |
| Crystal clear water. |
The 'gastropub' The Fat Duck doesn't open until 5pm. Really, what sort of pub is that? Anyway, it is fully booked tonight. The Thai is only doing take away because they are short staffed. One of the Italian restaurants, the pizzeria and spaghetteria is not serving any pasta dishes, The Ranch (another pub, not pretentious) is also fully booked for dinner. Ok, thinking outside the box, let's have a late lunch and stay at home sipping the local fermented grape juice.
 |
| No pasta? That's like a pub with no beer. |
Lunch was fine, the beer was good, Jayne scored a Guinness and I scored ridicule because of my accent. Fency a Kiwi teking the pess about how I pronounce "pilsener". Apparently it is pronounced pelsenr.
A quick reconnoître of the main street revealed every food establishment was looking for staff. It is a similar story back in Australia. We may be living with COVID differently but its impact is still being felt way beyond the health issues.
 |
| The sun is out, but |
 |
| Lake Manapouri is the winner. Maybe sunset ... |
It was a delight to spend our afternoon relaxing in our studio, sipping a wine and enjoying the sunshine that was streaming in through the glass doors. Te Anau is a very pretty town sitting on the side of the lake with a backdrop of sheer, craggy, moody mountains. Like many of the townships through which we have passed, flower gardens are prominent and the Lakefront Lodge has a lovely colourful display.
 |
| They love their dahlias in NZ. |
The sunsets here are quite the thing. The internet is not. Hence there are no sunset photos from our first night. Maybe tomorrow. I'm tired of waiting for them to load and we have an early start in the morning.
Tomorrow we are on a 10 hour tour of Milford Sound so the chances are you won't be hearing from me until Queenstown.
Until next time ...
No comments:
Post a Comment