Wednesday, 16th November 2022

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Had a lovely drive over to Te Anau from Invercargill today, stopped at quite a few beaches along the way. Tihaka Beach, Colac Bay, Monkey Island Beach, Gemstone Beach (unfortunately just pebbles, no gems to be found!) and McCrackens Rest are the ones I can remember the name of.

We’ve noticed during our time here that you randomly see items displayed in people’s gardens – ranging from old cars and boats to teapots (see pictures from yesterday) and sculptures (see “Nobby” in the pictures today!).

I was surprised to stumble across a Bupa retirement village in Riverton, which overlooked a lake and was somewhere we would happily retire to! It was odd to see the Bupa logo over here and it reminded me briefly of work – but I soon put it to the back of my mind again!

Riverton is a lovely little place, we stopped here to get a few photos of some of the buildings and a random train they had on the pavement and also the lake which was as still as a mill pond.

As we had plenty of time today, we were on the lookout for anything of interest along the way. We spotted an old school (Otahu Flat), which was just a single room in the middle of a field of cows. Visitors were allowed to enter the school as long as they didn’t let the cows escape, so we meandered through the field, avoiding the pats along the way and had a nose. It was quite a simple building, just the single room, but it was interesting to see how the local kids were taught here in the first half of the 20th century.

Back in the car, we drove through Manapouri, which has spectacular views across the lake and a backdrop of snow capped mountains. The scenery in New Zealand is just amazing, it’s hard to describe and photo’s just don’t do it justice.

We arrived at our next nights accommodation, Lakeside Motel and Apartments in Te Anau just after lunch. It was nice to be checked in early, not so nice that we’re on the 1st floor and had to carry all the luggage up to the room! But on the plus side, we have an amazing view of the lake from our lounge/kitchen area, and a couple of chairs out on the balcony to sit and enjoy the scenery.

We’ve even had time today to wander around the town, there’s plenty to keep us busy in our few days here.

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