Catching up

Te Anau

Finally getting around to writing some more blogs. The days are full with travelling and sightseeing, so it's hard to find the time to write.

This morning we drove to Lake Manapouri. It's about 20km from Te Anau. Very pretty with backdrop snow-capped mountains. We had a bite to eat before we went off to find 3 geocaches. We found 2 out of the three; one of which was at a lovely location called Pearl Harbour which had a delightful view looking down the river. Certainly somewhere we would not have found if not looking for a cache!

In the afternoon, our friends Andrew (Grug) and Chrissie arrived in Te Anau. We had booked ourselves on a jet boat ride and they decided to join us too. The company was Luxmore Jets. Lovely people running the show - so friendly and informative. We got picked up from our accommodation and taken in a small bus to the launching area. We were all fitted with beanies and life jackets and we all boarded the boat. The lady who drove us there took our photo with our own cameras and handed them back to us before we took off. Nice to see one company not ripping you off by selling you a $20 print of an "action shot", which they take.

The boat took us along parts of Lake Manapouri and Waiau River. The views were just amazing, and because the area is only accessible by boat, it is very untouched. The water is so clear that you can see trout swimming around in 3 metres of water. During the journey we stopped a few times to view scene locations from Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring). That was great.
We also did "spins" in the boat which were so much fun - a little tamer than the Shotover Jet, but that was fine as we could still film and video and virtually not get wet.

We returned back to Te Anau and had dinner together at the Ranch Hotel.


Te Anau/Milford Sound

Went down to the Laundromat this morning (exciting!). It was called 'Wash and Surf'. While your clothes were washing and drying, you could browse the net on one of the many computers they had there!

After that, we started our drive to Milford Sound. The scenery on the way there was just spectacular, you really are surrounded by monstrous sized mountains with snow on them. The weather was nice too, so it made the drive very pleasant. Because we had a 3pm boat to catch, we could not stop for too many photo opps, and decided to take our time home and stop then.

Before arriving at Milford, you go through the 'Homer Tunnel' - It's virtually a one way tunnel with signal lights at each end that change every 15 minutes. The tunnel took about 20 years to build as they were carving through 1.2km of solid rock.

We arrived at Milford Sound just in time for our cruise. We boarded the Real Journeys boat - 'Milford Monarch' - a massive boat and only one third full, so we had lots of space to roam around. I was told the afternoon cruises are much better as you avoid all the coach tours which do the lunchtime cruises.
We went and collected our 'picnic box lunch', we I had preordered. After gobbling that down, we went on the open top deck for the rest of the journey.

On the cruise, you pass many waterfalls and see numerous animals such as dolphins, seals, penguins and sealions. In one of the waterfalls, they take you in really close to the spray and turn the boat so we see a rainbow. Neil got some great fisheye shots here. During the cruise we spotted Grug and Chrissie on another boat. There is a great photo Neil took with the telephoto of them looking really surprised when they knew it was us!

The cruise went for about 1.5 hours, and we made our way back to the dock.
Because the sun doesn't set until about 9pm, we still had about 4-5 hours of daylight to explore some things on the way home. Grug and Chrissie caught up to us after their cruise, so we drove in convoy and stopped to see things together.

We stopped at a few waterfalls, and also Mirror Lakes, where the mountains are reflected in these still ponds. The sandflies were awful here and I have suffered many bites which are driving me insane! We also stopped at a little river near Lake Gunn, which Neil decided he HAD to paddle in. It was of course freezing and he didn't last too long in there. After seeing amazing cloud formations near the end of the drive, we went for a late dinner (9.30pm) at the Kepler Restaurant. We were all stuffed and tired, so had an early night.


Te Anau - Wanaka

We checked out this morning from our lovely cottage and went to do a local geocache with G+C. This cache was one that our friend Glenn had actually found and signed in 2003, so that was amusing and sucha small world. We said goodbye to G+C and started our drive to Wanaka.

Yet again beautiful scenery along the way, and although we had travelled this route before, we had not seen it in sunlight, so it all looked new to us!
Because the weather was so nice, our warmest day yet at 23 degrees, we decided to detour slightly to Queentown, because our previous stay there was rained out.
We went on the gondola ride up to the top and had magnificent views of the whole of Queenstown and beyond.

After leaving the gondola, we continued our drive to Wanaka. This was a rather steep and windy road and we got to our highest elevation so far - 1080 metres. Arrived in Wanaka and checked into the Edgewater Resort. Absolutely beautiful room and location. It was a shame we were only here for 1 night. This town was somewhere I would definitely like to come back to and explore. We had some ducks outside our room who were tapping on the sliding door with their beaks, wanting to be fed - so cute! Neil started to get a cold.


Wanaka - Fox Glacier

Made the most of the 11am checkout and started our drive to Fox Glacier. Some gorgeous scenery along the way and it was nice to see some of the lakes looking calm and still. We found 3 caches along the way, one under a bridge at a place called 'Cache Creek'! Once we were past Haast, the scenery dramtically changed. We caught a few glimpses of the Tasman Sea and drove through quite dense forest.

We arrived at Fox Glacier, which is a tiny town with not much here. Checked into our motel and then went off to find somewhere to eat. The town at the moment is extremely busy, with all restaurants full and no tables available. We ended up choosing a pub where we waited for a table. This was to be a bad choice, as once seated in the restaurant, we ended up waiting nearly 50 minutes for our food. They had 2 new waitresses on who were just hopeless and we reckon there was a one armed chef trying to cook all the meals. This poor other couple had been waiting 50 minutes also for their food, only to be told that one of their choices was not available! They stormed out in anger, which I dont blame them for. Our food finally arrived, and luckily it was very tasty. We paid our bill and got out of there quick!

Had an early night. Neil processed some more pics. No internet connection here, so can't upload this until we go to the net cafe down the road.