Invercargill to Queenstown via Te Anau

I have totally lost track on what day or date it is! I think it's Wednesday - no, it's Thursday, I am informed by a couple of my fellow YHA members! Crumbs! Where did the time go! I thought I left Eunice on Tuesday! Anyway, the day I DID leave, and that was yesterdayI decided to go for a drive along the coast and up to Te Anau, which was a great trip. I had to stop several times to take photos and how I wish I could show them to you now! Crashing waves, hang-gliding surfers.... beautiful! Then it was over the plain, and eventually into the hills to Te Anau, on the lake of the same name, and surrounded by high peaks!

Lake Te Anau

I booked into a backpackers hostel - not the most friendly staff I've ever met! I was given my keys for the room without an explanation that they were engraved 8 for the front door of the chalet; 8a for my room, and something else for the communal rooms, like TV room, laundry etc. I had to go back to the desk when I tried all 3 keys on the front door and none of them worked, try as I might to turn them both ways!! "It could be me...." I offered and was snappily told there was nothing wrong with the keys, and that they had been used many times! OK! THEN she told me about the numbers, which I hadn't found because it was dark by the time I found my chalet, and she also volunteered that the key for the front door MIGHT need a little wiggle and MAY not necessarily turn the way it should!

In the foyer were two American hippies - I reckon there's very little likelihood of them reading this so I feel pretty safe in describing them to you! He was tall, and skinny with a big bushy beard and the biggest tache. She was small and very rotund, with long straggly grey hair and missing her two front teeth on the top. Both were probably about 60. He turned up at the computers at the same time as me, but we found that they weren't working. He obviously wasn't happy with Microsoft, being a Mac man himself! Anyway nothing could be done so we had to forego the chance to do our stuff! Hence the reason I didn't blog yesterday. Anyway, not impressed with these two I headed back to the chalet - the keys worked by the way! - to take a shower. I heard folk coming back into the chalet after a while, but when I met them - guess who? The hippies! , and they had started to cook their brown rice and veggies. They are apparently big activists back home, constantly involved in legal wrangles with neighbours over this and that! It turned out they were on a trip financed by their son who is "respectable" - their word - as a rekkie tour to see if they might like to come out to NZ to live! I can't see it happening!

This morning I took more photos of lake Te Anau, had breakfast in the same cafe, I am sure, that Aussie cousin Jan and I ate at, 9 years ago - an apple and bran muffin and tea (the best tea since I arrived in NZ! I don't care for the type of tea they generally use over here, and it's not just that it's here! I don't like it much at home either!), and finally set off on the next stage of my journey, frequently stopping to take photos! When I finally reached Lake Wakatipu there were viewpoints - lookouts - every mile or so, and I reckon I stopped at most of them, sometimes going for a bit of a walk through the "bush" for a better view! All footpaths by the way - no venturing off the beaten track! Talking of tracks, I just happened to arrive at Fairlight station just in time to see and photograph the Kingston flyer which was due to leave for Kingston at the south end of lake Wakatipu.

The Kingston Flyer

So Queenstown was reached eventually, and a bed at the youth hostel booked! It's not available tomorrow night so I will probably find a backpackers and stay here an extra night! There are so many things I want to do tomorrow! I'd like to have done the Lord of the Rings tour too, but haven't seen it advertised anywhere since I got here! Still there's plenty more to do! Queenstown is a very busy place - even at this time in the year the place is full of visitors from all over. In the hostel tonight there are English, Scots, Irish, Aussie, Chinese, Sikhs, Dutch, French....... I'm looking forward to seeing the autumn colours of the trees tomorrow.

The mountain views should also be remarkable! - That's what the range in the picture to the right and below is called! The Remarkables! It's something to do with the tilt of the mountains which geologists couldn't get their heads around in the 19th century.

Well, my time on the computer here is running out so I must "publish" this right now! I'm still not sure what to do about the photos!

Hope you enjoy the internet pics! I don't suppose they'll enlarge, but I'll have some of my own eventually!

Talk again soon!