Advertisement
Mandeville
Aviation Museum Yes I know, by now any reader will be confused. The last post Dunedin to Gore is out of kilter datewise and in order of posting. Trouble is, am now trying to post entries retrospectively and the dates of posting are NOT those of actually travelling.....if you get what I mean! Will see if I can get it back in order. So, we left the little town of Gore late (11.30am) on the morning of 27 April after having a bit more of a look around this interesting town. The very helpful and extremely pleasant lady, Jill, in the tourist centre told us to make sure we stopped for coffee at the Aviation Heritage Museum which is only 15km out of Gore on the way to Te Anau. She also booked us into the campervan park at Te Anau as it is always popular and made reservations for us on the Milford Sound bus and boat charter for the following day. They are usually booked out. Jill convinced us to take the bus from Te Anau to Milford Sound instead of driving our own van. Great advice as we later found out.
On our way at last, we did
stop at the little siding of Mandeville, which is the location of the Croyden Aviation Heritage Museum and will let the pics tell the story. Great spot and even has an old heritage train loco in the yard. Big collection of vintage bi planes (Tiger Moths etc) which are all still airworthy and feature in the annual airshows in the area. You can even buy joyrides in one!
Next to the hangar is a large aircraft workshop with local enthusiasists restoring yet more old aircraft. Having worked in the same industry it was a real eye opener as far as the skills and materials were concerned. I have never seen such an array of aircraft parts and partly built and restored vintage aircraft. Had to tear myself away as we need to keep on the road to Te Anau before dark and the sky was starting to look a bit gloomy.
The remainder of the drive over to Lake Te Anau was fairly straight forward without any major hills (mountains!) or bendy roads. In fact, the road was nice and flat and well maintained. Lots of deer farms along the way.
We arrived into Te Anau mid
afternoon and booked into the Top 10 holiday Park right by the lake. At this time of the year the trees were all in full autumn colour and Mary couldn't get the camera out quick enough. Of course tourists were all lined up along the foreshore of the lake taking pics even though the light was starting to fade. At this stage we were getting a bit worried that our much looked forward to trip to Milford Sound the next day may be spoilt by the weather as the sky was looking grey and a distinct change was coming over. More and more people appearing in more and more clothing.........more on the Milford trip tomorrow.
but first, a good nights sleep.......and, don't forget you can see more pics by scrolling right down the page.
A&M.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.238s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 22; qc: 98; dbt: 0.1742s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
praveenkumarpraveaen
praveenrastogi
hello........
awesome photo's. thanks for share with us. praveen www.mytravelo.com