House Of Wood Te Anau

... white" - one of the great varieties of coffee served at the Five Rivers cafe. We will have a hard time adjusting to regular coffee when we get home. At eleven, we went through Te Anau, a great little town on a huge lake, and then on to Manapouri to the Real Journeys office. Fortunately the rain stopped and we enjoyed a picnic lunch. The journey to Doubtful Sound then required an hour cruise across the island-studded Lake Manapouri and an hour bus trip over Wilmot ...

... to the ski slopes. There were quite a few snowboarding types around. Brunch was very leisurely as at last I found a café with free wifi and took the opportunity of loading my last blog - the video clips took ages to upload so hope they were worth it! Headed then for Queenstown, allegedly the "adventure capital of the world", passing lots of vineyards on the way - yes passing. Eventually found my way to the campsite and then headed into town to meet the EK girls for a coffee ...

... Sound and over the pass. On the way down through the temperate rainforest on the other side to Deep Arm, the gradient is 1 in 5 which was quite entertaining in the coach! Then it was onto the boat for three hours cruising around the Doubtful Sound. "Doubtful Harbour" was Captain Cook's name for this fjord (apparently a Fjord is a flooded glacial “U” shaped valley, a Sound, a flooded “V” shaped river valley so ...

... are very narrow along the sides of the mountains, and will also probably be icy. The ice axe is on a nylon tether, which you wrap around your arm, and, well, you get the idea. I'm now beginning to wonder what I'm getting myself into.     I stop at the supermarket in town to buy food for the next three days, mostly dried stuff that will not spoil, and most importantly, scroggin. Scroggin is a simple mixture of chocolate, peanuts, and raisins. I don't claim to be any sort of hiking expert ...

... The next morning Zach, Christina and I finished the track while Micah and Becca continued on to do the Greenstone Track. Unfortunately we had steady rain and low clouds that day, so we couldn't see much. After exiting Routeburn, Zach and I stayed in Te Anau for a day to prepare for the Milford Track and meet up with Naima. The Milford Track is easily the most popular track in New Zealand, and we booked it way back in January. It is ...

... a little bit scared of flying into the narrow valley between the huge mountains of Queenstown (she hates flying) after the big crack, but luckily it was a smooth landing. Queenstown is right next to a huge lake and looks very cool. We just had time to go out for dinner and watch some crazy fire eaters and dancers. They were jumping whips that they set on fire and doing crazy tricks. This morning we had to get up before sunrise to catch a taxi to a bus to another bus to a ...

... and bungy jump into oblivion - or that's how it seems to me. NZ is the home of bungy jumping and they are continually coming up with new and more daring escapades. Hours later as we reach the outskirts of the trendy Queenston and turn onto the road down Lake Wakatipu, the last of the evening light hits the Remarkable Mountains on one side and throws the lake into shadow. It's magic. Dark when jwe reach Te Anau but happily we have ...

... take. Apparently, they shared some resources including the bus. After they picked up everybody, the guides briefed us at the tour offices. Ours was done bilingually, first in English, then in Japanese. Mitch decided to take a nap during the latter briefing. In the interests of not snoring over the guide, he napped outside.  From the tour offices, we were driven to a dock well north of the town of Te Anau where a boat brought ...

... Gertrude Valley, Homer Tunnel and, of course, the Chasm. However, I still think the coastal route from Cape Town to Hermanus is more spectacular. Many tour buses from Queenstown ply this route, which makes the scenic spots a bit overcrowded when 50 travellers troop from a bus! Milford Sound does not have much in terms of amenities - there's an airport, café, toilets and harbour. No fuel... Our cruise ...

... fact that you don't have to tip!

We're also enjoying NZ TV - there are three channels which show an eclectic mix of UK, US and Aussie soaps, detective dramas etc, plus quite a few movies. We love the adverts; there are some endearingly amateurish ones on the radio and the TV has ads for farmers; we particularly enjoy the one for a worming treatment for sheep which features a cartoon woolly creature saying 'this will kill the baa-stards!'.

I'm ...