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 ...

Under the sun (Dunedin to Invercargill and The Catlins)

Our final day in Dunedin began with cloud, which soon cleared to another beautiful day. Hence the title, a little number for NZ group L.A.B., all the way back from 2021. Have a listen. We dragged ourselves out of bed to prepare for departure and the drive to the Otago Peninsula. What I thought would be a 10 minute drive turned out to be something much more substantial. Distance does not always equate to time travelled.

Of course the unknown factor of travel in NZ, well perhaps not unknown, but certainly difficult to work into time plans, is their penchant for carving roads into the side of a land mass so the road follows the contour of the water. For those of you who have driven the North Island, think Coromandel. The road to the Albatross Centre on the peninsula was the same. The speed limit was regularly limited 40kph and the road followed the harbour's edge. Beautiful to look at, if you weren't driving.

The view from the Royal Albatross Centre back towards Dunedin.

We wended our way along the edge of the harbour and spotted two cruise ships in dock. They were a long way from Dunedin itself, so one assumes the passengers from these floating viral microcosms were transported to the city by bus. So happy to be on the other side of the harbour. 

They came from nowhere.

The Albatross Centre is at the very end of the peninsula. It's a commitment to get there. And like many things in life, once achieved, is a disappointment. There is a lookout that is free. Quite a spectacular view of the coast and where I snapped the seals. However, entry to the good bit is an escorted tour that costs over $60 per person and takes an hour - from memory. We were here because we thought it was a viewing platform arrangement, we did not have time to take an hour tour. Truth be told, dear reader, I didn't want a tour. A few photos were taken, and I made friends with a juvenile red-billed gull; actually it tried to land on my head twice. It knew a bird lover.

My friend.

Back to the car to commence the slow drive toward Invercargill, except we thought we would stop along the way at Lanarch Castle, also on the peninsula. Once again we tackled the narrow winding roads to the top of the escarpment only to be terrorised by a helicopter appearing, seemingly from nowhere and disappearing again and then reappearing. It was spraying, something, and scaring the sheep, and us. At the castle gate we arrived, to find that the entry price to walk in the gardens was $22 a person. To look inside was even more! Perhaps if we'd had another day in Dunedin we would have checked it out. When you're on a tight timeline with a big drive ahead, nope. Not interested.

Sandfly Bay

Driving back towards Dunedin to find Highway 1, I decided to check out Sandfly Bay. This was a gutsy decision, as Jayne and sand flies are not friends, dear reader. Not even frenemies. It's like arch nemesis stuff, Prince Planet and Warlock (oh, whatever, google it). Anyway, Sandfly Bay is beautiful, but travel times precluded me getting all the way to the beach. I had to be content with seal photos from the headland. Still cool. Jayne survived. No sand fly bites. Fortunately for me.

Just playing around in the wash.

From this point the drive to Invercargill commenced. Nothing to get excited about. We stopped for petrol, at $2.40 a litre for 91. Stop whingeing about fuel prices Australia. We arrived at the Quest Apartments and everything went smoothly. The people at Quest are absolutely lovely and so helpful. It hasn't been a go to for us, but it could become so. The recommendation for dinner was excellent and, despite being on a busy corner in a car dominated city, the double glazing kept the noise out. 

On arrival we had intended to go the supermarket to purchase some wine. Yes, I knew you'd be shocked, dear reader. Only it was us who were shocked when we were informed that Invercargill has a problem with alcohol and supermarkets are not permitted to sell it. In a logic defying move, bottle shops still exist where you can go and buy all the take home alcohol you want.

We walked 10 minutes down the street to the bottle shop, made our purchase and walked home again. In a city ruled by cars this was unusual behaviour, not a lot pedestrian traffic. After all the main attractions here are car and motorcycle museums. Not quite what I am into.

The discussion that evening was around the plan for the next day. Originally I thought Stewart island might have been the thing to do, but this gave way to exploring parts of The Catlins. There is not much to say that photos can't illustrate better, so here are the places we visited, and yes, dear reader, Jayne did go bushwalking (or tramping as it is called here).

1. The lighthouse at Waipapa Point

2. Curio Bay (Porpoise Bay)

Just surfing the break

A fossilised forest - one of three in the world

3. McLean Falls

Jayne climbed these steps

4. Tautuku Estuary Boardwalk

Not really that interesting.

Oh, look, mud flats!

5. Lake Wilkie

The view from above.

The reflective lake perspective. Excellent for an afternoon shot.

6. Florence Hill Lookout

7. Purakaunui Falls

So famous they are on a Kiwi stamp.

Goodness. I'm exhausted just reading back over all of that. Tomorrow our destination is Te Anau in the region known as Fiordland. Think Heidi, no, Song of Norway, a film from 1970.

Until next time ...