Don’t you love it when the weather report says rain and you wake to a lovely sunny day! Well that is what the first few days of this posting were like! We arrived at Te Anau around lunch time and spent most of the afternoon in the sun at the park/playground. Playing on the swings/slide, riding scooters, kicking the ball and of course making train tracks – this time complete with ‘chalk’ lake, jetty and fish! Mike made a side track to the local fish and game centre and so we found a good camp spot beside a river and he spent the late afternoon and evening fishing.
making moss-castles on road to Te Anau
fishing spot
The next morning we visited a native/endangered bird centre and we all saw our first live takahe – and it looked just like our Trevor too! Then Mike and the kids tried their hands at fishing at a pretty little lake in Te Anau. Jack and Lucy looked like an old married couple in their deck chairs beside the lake!
Next on our list was Milford Sound. The drive from Te Anau usually takes 2 ½ hours but, with numerous rivers to stop and fish at, it took us over 2 days!
mackay creek camp spot
indoor and outdoor fun
mike's fun
the chasm
After a foreshore walk at Milford, we boarded a cruise boat for a 2 hour cruise. It was another sunny day which was lovely but did mean the waterfalls weren’t at their best glory. Regardless we all enjoyed being on the water and spotting the odd seal flapping in the sea and sunning on the rocks.
see no evil speak no evil...
Our kea meets a real kea outside the homer tunnel
On the way back from Milford we stayed at Gunns Camp in Hollyford valley and did a night walk to a local glowworm spot and a day walk to a thousand year old hollow tree – the kids loved it. I loved the non-stop wood heated hot shower!
old public works hut are used for cabins
On the way back to Te Anau we enjoyed another night stop beside the river and whilst Mike fished, the rest of us went on a nature walk to Lake Gunn. The trees were very tall and the lake very pretty.
jack and lucy were very quiet on the drive back to te anau
We spent one further day in Te Anau for some more playground and library fun, before heading south, south, south. It was a good feeling to reach the South Coast and we spent our first night at a great little sea side spot opposite Monkey Island. The only monkeys around were Jack and Lucy shooing away the seagulls and making a stink bomb.
feeding then horses and donkeys at Clifton suspension bridge
future farmers???
scaring seagulls
phewww that's stinky!
fun with toi tois
There was not a lot to see on the way to Invercargill, and not much in Invercargill city either, although I must admit we didn’t look very hard! We stopped for a swim at the local pool, then spent the next morning at the Bluff oyster festival and the afternoon with my rellies, Steven, Kerri and Jesse.
as far south as we're going
First oysters
Then fishing called again so we left Invercargill and headed up to the Mataura River. We found a great camp spot at a scenic reserve in the middle of nowhere with a lovely little nature walk. Mike spent a little time on the river but, with no fish spotted and drizzle starting we decided to fast-track our trip to Dunedin. So we drove back down to the south coast and stayed at Curio Bay in the Catlins. We arrived just in time to head to the beach for some penguin spotting. It was very exciting to see 6 little yellow eye penguins (hoihos) making their way up from the sea, across the rocks and up to their nests in the bushes for the night.
Today we drove through the Caitlins to Waihola, close to Dunedin. It's been a fairly overcast and drizzly day but we managed a couple of short walks.
Purakaunui Falls
