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Published: January 8th 2011
Well, here I am in Te Anau. The town is stretches along the shores of a lake of the same name. I'm spending the next three days here, resting my knee and enjoying some relaxing activities.
My first full day included a stop at the wild bird santcuary. The birds in these enclosures are typically rescues that will hopefully be returned to the wild or can never be returned because they wouldn't survive. The most entertaining inhabitants were the kaka. They were having a fine time climbing around their enclosure and making short flights. It was almost like they were performing for us. A stroll along the main street brought me to a small Italian restaurant. A fantastic place, I had a seafood pizza (which included squid). The rest of the day was pretty sedate.
The second day started off with a bicycle ride. Rosie and Alistar (the couple who run the backpackers where I'm staying), gave me the use of an old mountain bike and Rosie gave me directions for a trail along the lake. Off I went. A short ride out of town down the main highway I found the gravel road Rosie told me about and
Te Anau Bird Sanctuary
Antipodes Island Parakeetit led me to the lake. A wonderful, quiet place with mountains on the far shore. A number of people were fly fishing from the shore and power boats trolled a little farther out. The trail along the lake eventually led back into town past the boat launch and the main drag. A quick stop at the grocery store and then it was back to the hostel for lunch and a breather before my evening activity...a trail ride through a working farm. I havn't been riding in about ten years and I was really looking forward to it. First, though, I had to survive the drive to the farm. The van taking me there was doing about 100km/hr on the gravel roads (I saw the spedometer)...there were a few interesting corners. At the farm, we met our horses. Mine had a nice, soothing name; Tiger. Tiger was pretty good, actually, although I was warned that he did have a mind of his own and that he would lag behind and then trot to catch up. Tiger didn't disappoint. During one of the river crossings he stopped in the middle of the river and stomped one hoof repeatedly (trying to splash
me), and I got used to the frequent trots as we caught up to the lead riders. And the landscape. Wow. Pastures with cattle, sheep, and deer, fields of grain, mountains in the distance, and a river running through it all. A fantastic way to end the day.
My third day in Te Anau was even more relaxed than the first. Pick up my hut pass for tomorrow's hike, then a movie called "Shadowland". A fantastic piece showing off the beauty of Fiordland National Park (think BBC's "Planet Earth" but with no dialogue). Another pizza lunch and back to the backpackers for the evening. Tomorrow I leave for an overnight hike on part of the Kepler Track.
Goodnight from Te Anau
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Kathy
non-member comment
Great photos
Looks like you are having a wonderful time. Really enjoying the blog updates and photos. Weather looks like it is good, for the most part. You aren't missing much here... we have some snow again - last week we lost most of it due to high temps. Got cold again last Sunday and we have slowly accumulated some snow...nothing like expected for this time of the year. Sea food pizza sounds interesting...does it have a tomato sauce or something else as a base? Doubt your missing us yet. Hope your knee is better for further adventures. Take care, Kathy