The Cat's Whiskers Bed & Breakfast Te Anau

... town was really busy as there were Winter Games on which had attracted a lot of participants and spectators as well as the normal seasonal ski/snowboard crowd - I must admit to feeling a bit old. After dinner the EK girls came round Chez Moi for a few drinks and a good blether and airing of opinions on the creative marketing by the NZ tourist bods. After they left I was a bit wired so headed back into town for a look round and to phone - as for once I was awake after midnight so ...

... is really just a springboard for the area’s attractions. As is now customary, I headed for the i-Site to get a map and see what there was to do. Glow Worms was apparently the thing for the afternoon and involved a short boat trip over the lake – somewhat overcast but nice to be on the water. Then the group of us were taken into a low cave entrance. Stooping down not to bang our heads, the cavern soon opened up in height and allowed us to view whirlpools and ...

... a good place for a snack. We didn't stay long here as we had been told of some limestone caves at Clifton that very few people visit know about, when we got to the location the caves don't look like much just a standard door size opening in a hill side surrounded by grazing sheep. The cave we enter ran for abot 800 metres and emerged about 600 metres from where we entered, it was stand up walking to the end with a verticle chimney at the end, if you plan to do this take a ...

... Bev's Tramping Gear is a business in town that rents out, well, gear for hiking, called 'tramping' here. There's no real shop or anything, Bev runs the business out of her house, which is right down the road and around the corner from the hostel. In her garage, Bev shows me the gear I'll need for the walk. A gas bottle and burner ring, other stuff you'd expect to see, and then... an ice axe. Wait a minute, what? An ice axe? Why do I need an ice axe, I ask. Bev explains that parts of the ...

... to 110 km/hr were predicted at the pass, and a heavy rain warning was out for the morning. The rangers advised us not to push on the the next hut if we felt conditions weren't safe. As we hiked past the swollen river we saw full waterfalls which occasionally gushed over the track. We gained elevation that day and once we made it to Routeburn Falls the skies cleared and the entire valley came into color in the sunshine! From there we ...

... slide show. Mosquito bites 5("sandfly") Wildlife: NZ fur seal Mollymawk Blackbacked gull Tomtit Fantail Bottle nosed dolphins NZ wood pigeon Transport: Crampervan Bus Catamarran ferry Coach Cruiser ship-fiordland navigator, flat bottomed, keel-less, mastsails only for show Tender boat Yvette: started by being picked up by coach at 12.00am and taken for cruise part 1 across lake manapouri. then we went by ...

... the view of the road winding its way into the distance down the mountainside. It was truly beautiful. And we made it to the main attraction, a boat ride through the beautiful Milford sounds. Well, we had to take other people's words for it, as the cloud was so low, we could only see the waterfalls trickling down the sides of the vast mountains next to our boat. I spent most of the boat journey chatting to a lovely girl called Sally whilst we ...

Since our last blog so much has happened.... we actually left Queenstown for a day. And soon learned rule #4, never leave Queenstown. We had a lovely evening of massages and facials before calling it a night around 9:00 pm to make up for the three hours we had received the night before. Woke up and headed off to Te Anau, a Fiordland town on the way to Milford Sound, the epicenter of all things Fiord. As we left, I think I spied a wee tear in Lyndsey's eye as she said ...

... NZ's greatest engeneering feats. Back at the surface the bus took us over the Wilmot Pass, stopping along the way to see Fiordland's rainforest and to view Doubtful Sound far bellow, to Deep Cove were we boarded another boat for a 3 hour cruise taking in the stunning scenary of Doubtful Sound, the sheer cliffs and forested islands were really amazing. After finishing the cruise we did the bus and lake Manapouri tours in the opposite direction. As we ...

... skipper' stalled the mini-bus engine, struggled to re-start it and when he had, to get it into gear. His fellow crew member told us not to worry. It was only because John had never driven the mini bus before!!!! And that was meant to reassure us!!? Despite this non-too promising a start and an occasionally somewhat unconventional approach to their passengers (we've come to learn that a casual approach to customers and an assumption that they ...