One Look Across the Water (Te Anau to Milford Sound)

Hello again, dear reader. This post will be characterised by photographs, a lot of them. They often tell the story better than I. To begin at the end, of the last post at least. The sunset pictures finally loaded.

Colour in the southern sky.

Pretty beginnings.

Angry cloud.

The sunset was best viewed from the lakefront. We were sitting outside our unit ,soaking up the afternoon sun as it faded behind the mountains when I noticed some colour in the sky. Curiously, it was not from the west where the sun was disappearing. The first colours were in the south-east and gradually moved south-west, they never reached where the sun set. Interesting.

The next morning, we were awoken by the alarm. An uncommon experience in the current phase of our lives, but we had to be ready to board the bus for the Milford Sound tour at 8am. The tour was limited to 15 people and promised 19 stops in all, including the Milford Sound cruise. The concept was to stop at a particular point either on the way there or home, depending on the weather and the crowds. John, our tour leader/driver did an excellent job with commentary.

There were plenty of big buses from Queenstown on the road but we believe touring from Te Anau was the better option. We were able to spend more time exploring interesting side trips and were also able to get into some places the coaches would not be able to access because of size.

The weather was variable. We started in sunshine at Te Anau and drove through mist, rain and cloud before arriving at the Sound. There we experienced rain and then clearing conditions and finally full sun.

1. Lake Te Anau's south fiord.

What? You expected a caption? See the title.

2. Te Anau Downs

3. Eglinton Valley

Just back down the road was the area used to film Frodo's escape into the forest of the ents.

Used in The Lord of the Rings.

4. Mirror Lake

5. Cascade Creek

We had morning tea here. Excellent date scones.

You guessed it, Cascade Creek.

A South Island Robin on the wing.

There he is in the shrubbery.

6. Lake Gunn

The conditions weren't right for a stop on the way to the Sound, the return journey proved perfect. Maybe even better than Mirror Lake.

7. Hollyford Lookout

If you look really hard you can see the Marian Cascades we walked to.

8. Marian Cascade

9. Falls Creek

10. Monkey Creek

11. Homer Tunnel

The tunnel was named after the guy who dreamt up the concept, not Homer Simpson, although there are similarities. Tunnel through the mountain he said. It'll be about 200 yards he said. Actually it was around 1,400 yards (1.3km) and the tunnel came out half way down a cliff face.

The timber structure is the tunnel exit point.

12. Tutoko Bridge

13. Milford Sound

Hmmm, weather.

Seal and pup

Great view, eh?

Blue sky.

More seals in action. Or should that be inaction?

After leaving at 8am, we were dropped back home after 5:30pm. A long day, but a great day. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the company of our fellow travellers on the mini-bus. A varied group from the Netherlands, the States ( Utah and elsewhere), England and Queensland. It was a walk into the shopping area to grab a pizza (average) and sit in the fading light enjoying a wine and taking more photos of the Te Anau sunset.

It begins.

Not the fiery colours of last night.

Still stunning.

And today's title is another Dragon classic from their O Zambezi album of 1978. any look across the water here is beautiful and often looks like a mirror. Have a listen.

Tall trees (Invercargill to Te Anau, New Zealand)

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 ...