Blogs from Te Anau, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

As we had hoped, the day of our trip to Milford Sound dawned fine but very cold. During the night it had rained a little and almost snowed on the mountain across the lake but when we peeped out the curtains of Crowded House before dawn I could see stars and felt quite excited. The "Go Milford" mini bus turned up on time out the front of the Top 10 and we tore ourselves away from the fire in the reception office and jumped on board. Our driver, Rhys (or Reece?) is a veteran of 17 years driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound and soon had us relaxed and enjoying the drive. The drive begins at 200m above sea level in Te Anau town and climbs up to 940m at the Homer Tunnel where you ... read more

Headed off on the Doubtful Sound trip: bus,boat,bus,boat there and back. Never been on so many boats! Hit our first major snag - went to take a photo of the boat and discovered the camera was missing! Cue: panic. Couldn't find it anywhere. Rae saved the day to a certain extent by buying a disposable one (that they sold on board). But it means there won't be any pics of Doubtful Sound for you to see. The story ended well insofar as the bus driver who had taken us on the first leg found it down the side of my seat - doh!! We got it back on our return to Lake Manapouri wharf. Apparently we saw Fiordland and Doubtful Sound as it should be seen: cloudy,misty,rainy. This'll sound terrible but..............overall I was underwhelmed. It was ... read more

17.12.2011 Da Peter einen Great Walk machen wollte, fuhren wir nach Te Anau. Da unser Stadtrundgang schon nach 10min vorbei war (Stadt ist so normal groß), gingen wir auf den Campingplatz am Lake Te Anau. 18.12.2011 Hier trennten sich nun unsere Wege für 4 Tage. Peter versuchte sich (erfolgreich) am Kepler Dreck und Jonas erkundete die Umgebung und frischte den Filmvorrat auf. Ein Fehler von uns war nämlich keine Filme mitzunehmen. 21.12.2011 Die nächsten zwei Tage verbrachten wir in ruhiger, besinnlicher, vorweihnachtlicher Stimmung. Peter verarbeitete seine Eindrücke der Wanderung und Jonas unterstützte ihn mental dabei. 23.12.2011 Wir tätigten die letzten Weihnachtseinkäufe und schmückten unser Tagebuch mit vielen Informationen aus. Außerdem lieferten wir neue Bauelemente für unsern Christbaum. 24.12.2011... read more

The trip on the steamship Earnslaw included a tour of the Walter Peak High Country Farm – which was very interesting - feeding the lambs, sheep, deer and Alpaca (although they were very aloof and did not seem to want to be friendly to the tourists). There were two lambs that were just the opposite – putting on the cute faces and following people looking for goodies. It may seem a bit too touristy but it was well worth it – there was a sheep shearing demonstration and the shepherd rounding up the sheep with his dog – who was being trained and so added some enjoyment as the shepherd tried to make him do all the right things for the audience. We would recommend this for all ages especially if it is a wet day ... read more

Half of the Flying kiwi group went off for a day hike on part of the Kepler track this morning but the rest of us wanted something more adventurous and we headed off for a mammoth cycle on tracks untouched by bike and amazing views. We rode up and down windy unsealed tracks across farmland with deer, sheep and cows either fleeing at the shock of crazy people on bikes or getting excited and herding after us along the fence line. After stopping off for a snack at an observation point with views over the whole Te Anau basin, we sped downhill, enjoying the peddle rest, passing snowy peaked mountains, beech forests, rolling hills and valleys. ... read more