Friday. Arrowtown to te anau via glenorchy.
Friday morning we pulled out of the Big 10 Park in Arrowtown and headed for Glenorchy. Margaret's sister Joy had shown us photo's of her and her daughter Jodie riding horse's there and the wild Lupins were as high as the horse's. Drove through Queenstown and then had a spectacular drive around the side of Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy.
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Some clever person made this Tui, a native NZ bird that has a white tuff of feathers on its neck. There was two of them. Really well done.
Glenorchy, pronounced Glen orc he, so we found out, is a small town with spectacular views and we had great coffee and lunch there. The flowers were as promised and with lake and mountains in background.
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Native girl I found in the flowers.
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Native boy doing the traditional Haka amongst the Lupins.
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We then headed back to Queenstown and on to Te Anau. Pronounced Tea Arn ow. Well, I do anyway. :) We found accommodation through the local I Centre. Probably because everything was pretty heavily booked, the motel wouldn't honor there advertised price but we wernt arguing over 10 or 15 dollars. We went down to the lake and ate Fish and Chips. Could have gone to Milford Sound, a really spectacular place but with so many tourists and lots of rude ones at that, we gave it a miss. We had been there before. But I do recommend the drive out there for a look and a cruise. Looked at taking a cruise to Doughtful Sounds but I didn't want to buy the boat. Can drive there in about 2 hours apparently. Wish we had done it. Next time.
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Some fluffy little chic's finding dinner under the watchful eyes of the mothers.
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Water was quite refreshing. Freezing in fact. Woke me up.
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Lake Te Anau.
Invercargill here we come.
Saturday the 25th we leave Te Anau and head for Invercargill and Bluff. another hot sunny day. No humidity though which was good. Had a look at Lake Manapouri and also the Clifton Suspension bridge that was built in 1898. Called into Gemstone beach where Margaret found some great looking rocks. Wants to take them home. We also called into Monkey Island. Lots of hard sand where family's were having lots of fun. I didn't see any Monkey's though. Cosy Nook was picture perfect. Farmer had opened his gates for tourists to get down to ocean for a look. Had a special little building for people to use when the urge arose hahaha. Long Drop Lodge. Short Stay Only.
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Checked it out and as it says, I only had a short stay. It was a very long drop hahaha.
All the fields were so green and lots of sheep mostly with 2 lambs each. We passed through Invercargill and went straight to Bluff. Nothing much there but I suppose we can say we went to the southern most part of NZ except for Stewart Island. Back to Invercargill.
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Couple of old buildings in Invercargill. We got another cabin through the I Centre. Then went into town for look and some dinner.
Next morning we were up and Margaret wanted a pic of this old water tower. Which I have just found I havnt uploaded. Never mind. When we were at the I centre the old Indian Motorcycle was there. One from the movie "The Worlds Fastest Indian". About Kiwi Burt Munro and how he took his bike to the Salt Lakes.
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We then headed for Bill Richardson's "Transport world." Bill has passed away but his wife and family have kept the museum going and it is fantastic. Margaret wasn't keen on going but was happy she did. A lady Tracy who works there was so helpful with advice and also told us some horrific stories from when she lived in Christchurch during the earth quake. I doubt we even saw everything but we recommend this museum . Old cars. Old trucks. Model vehicles. Wearable art. Even the bathrooms were different making use of drums for example.
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Both those pics were taken in the bathrooms.
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Wearable Art.
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This model made completely with match sticks.
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One for you Dave. :)
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The Grill. Café.
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My Hot chocolate with a bar of chocolate laying across the top. I did share the bar with Margaret.
Great place. Would go again for sure and good price. Think it was about $23-50 each pensioner rates. Now leaving Invercargill and heading for Dunedin. Back later.
Keith
