A driving day (Monday the 7th) and then Doubtful Sound (Tuesday the 8th)

Kia Ora,

DRIVING DAY!  Monday took us by road from Wanaka, nicking Queenstown in going to Te Anau.  We set up camper van camp there, and then wandered into town.  Te Anau wasn’t particularly grabbing, nice setting on a lake but pretty sleepy.  

Early Tuesday we were up to drive over to Manapouri, catching the first of several lake shuttles to Doubtful Sound where, we were told, it rains two out of three days. We hit that third day. Both our skipper and bus driver told us how lucky we were.  Big lakes, surrounded by mountains, with very knowledgable ships’ captains telling us about the histories of these waters and valleys.  

The first boat ride took us to the huge, I mean HUGE hydro electric plant at the other end of the first lake.  In 1907 an engineer with foresight noted that this lake was way higher than the nearest sea, hence he saw opportunity (but involving a herculean engineering challenge) to supply almost the whole of the South Island’s electrical needs with one plant.  I have details if anyone wants to examine this, but the tunnels, the bringing in of steel and heavy equipment, the sex workers brought in the service the workers (I made this up as this can be a bit boring).  It was impressive, and I really was intrigued as they took us by bus down tunnels to the earth’s dark side...to view the turbines).

Then, another boat took us out through Doubtful Sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea.  We saw lots of critters, enormous mountains, waterfalls and the like.   We learned a lot about the invasive species that are a continual challenge (stoats, possums) Mimi hopped about the boat on the way to her best day yet 386 pictures.  We both really enjoyed the day and in the late afternoon went back to camp for a dinner of Silver Fern (brand) lamb, white beans and salad.  Darn good!!  Tomorrow, another road day as we head to Bluff...south as you can go (oysters for Mimi), then back to Queenstown.  We continue to luck in on the weather, as reputedly Doubtful Sound gets two rainy days for every passable third day.  A little boy (I think he was Swiss), asked: “Like Seattle?”

And now for some New Zealand info:  New Zealand fits roughly into the length of California, but is not as wide. Its population is give or take four million, 1.3 million of whom live in Auckland on the North Island.  Most days the greatest distance we drove was 2 to 3 hours max. So pretty easy going. Highway 6 is the main two lane ‘highway’ through the South Island and crosses every terrain imaginable. Everything is metric, including distances. The population is clearly diverse and the European influence varies depending on where you are in NZ (for example Dunedin on the south eastern coast of South Island hails from Scottish roots.). Eighty-six percent of the Wild West Coast (from Westport to  Te Anau) is National Park or some sort of reserve. The country is pristine.

Went through this old time little town...very quirky Cardrona

Driving to (in the distance) and then past Queenstown on our way to Te Anau

More of the same

Really cool cafe and shop very close to Te Anau that we may revisit on our bike trip.They were out of their homemade meat pies. Dang!

Inside...

outside...

Our Top Ten Holiday Park in Te Anau. Very busy place

There we are!

Lake Te Anau

Hilarious!

Street in Te Anau

Communal kitchen

More street sights

Getting on boat on Lake Manipouri 8:05 am!

Lake Manipouri

Arriving at hydroelectric plant - one hour boat ride

Tunnel into plant

Pretty simple looking outside (of power plant)

Entering the underground and huge part of plant

The seven turbines

Second plant finished in the late 90's. Took over three years of 24/7 work to complete

Doubtful Sound (partially)

First glimpse

Boarding for three hour tour

Doubtful Sounds was so name because Captain Cook thought he wold not be able to get out of it. He was wrong, of course. Technically, these waters are not a sound as they were formed many, many moons ago by glaciers. They are not the extension of the sea.

Dolphins, then two kinds of penguins, then seals and then Keas (birds)...amazing!

Breathtaking. At one point Skipper turned off engine, directed us to keep silent and to silence clicking cameras and to just listen. We heard birds and waterfalls and nothing else. He asked us to imagine what Captain Cook and others must have felt when they entered these waters.

Tasman Sea in distance, between two land masses

This lake is glacier-formed. Fresh water for a meter or two, then salt water under it. Deepest point is about 400'

Falls along the way

Lichen used still for healing purposes

Cabin for crayfish fishermen

Hot chocolate break!

Out on the choppy Tasman Sea to the seal colony. We could hear them and eventually smell them!

King of the Hill!

More dolphins who are, by the way, fiercely protected. The skipper had to slow to no-wake speed until the dolphins were done checking us out and swam away.

At the helm

Docked and unloaded

Back at Te Anau 

Very popular stand that we may also revisit on bike trip

For my Frenchies - French-speaking person works here. Whoop!