Barnyard Backpackers Te Anau

After Kaikoura, we continued north towards Abel Tasman. The scenery on our way there was very nice. We stopped at Kekerengu for a breakfast, as suggested by the owner of Beaconstone Backpackers and it is indeed a very lovely place. We continued to Blenheim, where we visited the Aviation Museum, which had a one year anniversary, so they celebrated with half priced entries. There was a very nice show of WWI airplanes, donated by Peter Jackson (the director of The Lord of The Rings). We then dro...

Made it thru the night. The other 2 people in our room were a German couple. OK - not so bad. But still didn't shower this morning. We have a private room for the next 2 nights. Yeh!! Maybe I'll shower. Thurs. 12/20/07 Came to Wanaka Tues. A private room with our own bathroom. Yeh!! Decided I'm too old for these dorm rooms. Nice size, windows facing the front with a beautiful lake across the road . Gorgeous!! On the way to Wanaka we stopped along the road to have our lunch. Felt like we were ...

Have just about got our "land legs" back now. We've done 2 boat cruises in 3 days as we explored Fiordland and the busy Sounds. Our base for this was Lake Manopauri (for Doubtful Sound) and then just 12kms up the road to Te Anua (for Milford Sound). Firstly though we did have a 4 hour journey from East to West. You'll be pleased to know that apart from the odd temperamental moment the CD player worked rather well. So we are no longer fed up with the New Zealand radio but we have done James Bl...

The three of us (Conor, Jorgen and me) decided to park up by the lake last night and sleep in our vehicles, only to be rudely awakened this morning by council security reminding us that we were parked right next to a "No Camping" sign. There was no point in pretending we didn't see it (although we didn't actually notice that one but we saw the numerous others) because it was right next to Conor's Spaceship (rented campervan). Doh! We hastily got TROGDOR into drive mode (by moving all our gear...

Te Anau

Milford Sound

We got in the car (a beast of a car) and embarked on our road trip. For the next week it was just the two of us again to have a little break from the bus and my job was to navigate our way through the windy roads to the next destination; Te Anau. The point of our road trip was to see some great sights, detox for a week after the partying in Queenstown and embark on some walks (or tramping as it is known in New Zealand) in fitness preparation for Peru. We chose Te Anau as our first stop becaus...

Milford Sound, the most famous tourist site in New Zealand so they say. Needless to say I was excited about getting there. After some more incredible dodgy roads and a tunnel carved out of the bottom of a moutain, we arrived at our destination and checked into the harbour to catch our small boat around the Sound. We had heard from other travellers that it was better to travel in smaller boast because the dolphins are more likely to come next to the smaller boats (something about the engines t...

Two and a half months in New Zealand and the place is really growing on me. One of my favorite things are the cheese rolls on sale in the local dairies (kiwi for corner shop). Instead of placing cheese in a conventional bread roll they place the cheese on a slice of bread and roll that up. Hilarious! They also come in asparagus and ham varieties. I've also seen signs in the same places advertising something to eat called a 'mousetrap'. Not sure if I want to try that one. When Kiwis want to de...

Eager to continue our trip, we set off early to drive through Fiordland National Park to Te Anau, the South Island's biggest lake. Our accommodation here was amazing; having booked a hostel room, we turned up to a cabin with ensuite bathroom overlooking the Kepler mountains in a very peaceful setting. Wow! We immediately booked a second night as it was so nice! We went into town and walked around part of the lake. At this point, although it was very cloudy, the light was amazing. Sunbeams sho...