Oct 19, 2007 - Te Anau, New Zealand

Drive to Te Anau..... Briefing at 8 AM and we left right after. We drove through sheep country the whole time. We had great views of the Southern Alps. I stopped at two Salvation Army Stores so Susan could stock up on some wool sweaters, shirts, hat and vest as she was freezing. Then we stopped in a nice store and Susan bought some Possum and Merino (I don't even know what Merino is...... their possum is a different animal than ours but looks similar with better fur). We did see some Elk, they are farmed here and they call them deer (maybe...

Oct 14, 2007 - Milford Sound/Te Anau: The clucth is gone!

Team Vigor hit the road for a 4 hour drive southwest to the infamous Milford Sounds. A 14 mile fiord that spits you out into the Tasman Sea. A friend of ours that we met in the hostel, Remko, from the Netherlands decided to join us for our great adventure. An adventure, is defnitely what it turned out to be too!! We arrived to the sounds around 2 o'clock, just in time for our picnic lunch before we headed onto our cruise. The cruise takes off and circles all of the sounds and then takes you back into the wharf lasting all of about 1 1/2...

Aug 28, 2007 - An unexpected bonus

We arrived back by a large bright full moon which was very impressive....but not as impressive as what followed. After getting ready for bed we looked out of the front window of the van and to our amazement we were witnessing an eclipse of the moon right in the middle of our windscreen! This very bright full moon changed to an orange/brown colour and the edges became so clear it looked like a ball you could pluck out of the sky. Looking at it just as the earths shadow covered the moon there was light spreading from the top which made the...

Aug 26, 2007 - After the bustle of Queenstown

Queenstown was the busiest town we had seen in the south island.It was full of youngsters off the piste even though the piste were quite a way away. It is the only town we had seen that had lots of lights and was awake after dark! It seemed strange to see shops open at 9pm and people walking about. Normally if we went for a walk after our evening meal it was very quiet and there were only a few very low weak street lights occasionally around. The road from Queenstown to Te Anau was straight and fast and the scenery quite barren.One part was...

Jul 9, 2007 - Kepler Track

The next day we made ourselves a pack lunch and headed off to walk a section of the 4 day Kepler Track. This is one of the "Great Walks" in New Zealand and has some amazing scenery along it, through woodland, valleys, shorelines and over rope bridges crossing rivers. In fact many of the river scenes from the Lord of the Rings films were filmed here. We stated at Rainbow Reach where we parked the car and crossed over a rope bridge. We were then walking through forests, in just pure silence with noone around, just fantastic! We then crossed...

Jul 7, 2007 - Te Anau

The next day we packed up the car and headed on to Te Anau. It isn't too far from Queenstown, but the roads were still icy and in places there was snow covering them, so we had to take it very easy! Te Anau is a very beautiful place, with the tiny village nestled next to Lake Te Anau. We had to kill some time before we could check into our place so we got ourselves some lunch and wandered along the edge of the lake. We then went over to the Department Of Conservation centre for some info about local walks. We planned to take a tour of...

Mar 13, 2007 - All the way to Te Anau

Got up this morning to rain and fog... So the supposedly fantastic views of Mount Cook from the lake were non-existant. Because of the crummy weather, we decided to put some hours in in the car. We made it all the way to Te Anau after a quick lunch stop in Queenstown to buy our new tent (all the bells and whistles of course - it's someone else's money!). We got it set up without any trouble at all and settled in for our first night of proper camping. Te Anau's a nice town on a beautiful lake. Won't be spending much time here though so a...

Mar 9, 2007 - New Zealand - Back to Te Anau and Milford Sound

We had decided that if the weather was good in Milford Sound we would drive the 3hrs back to Te Anua and a further 2 hours to Milford Sound so we could get an afternoon cruise. As we drove towards Milford Sound from Te Anua we could see all the gorgeous snow-capped mountains we had missed before due to the rain clouds. Along the road we stopped at Mirror Lakes where we got to see a slight reflection of the mountains in the lake as well as Hollyford Valley lookout where we saw the beautiful and lush Hollyford Valley which again was just...

Mar 5, 2007 - New Zealand - Te Anau and Milford Sound

Taking the southern scenic route past Riverton and Colac Bay, we stopped at McCrackens Rest for our home made ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Continuing through Tuatapere to Clifden Suspension Bridge built in 1899, through the forested Takitimu and Hunter Mountains with the Kepler Mountains in the distance with snow on top. Now surrounded by gorgeous mountains we arrive at Te Anau which sits on the edge of NZ's largest lake. A lovely little town used as a staging post for the famous Milford Sound walks and cruises. Encompassing the...

Mar 4, 2007 - Te Anau

Beeline this morning for Queenstown and the bathroom. Dad decided to treat us all to McDonalds after the DOC disastrous campground. Booked our tour of Doubtful Sound for tomorrow. Made it to Te Anau by 1:00 pm. Did some more grocery shopping. Did I mention that we will be prefacing the title of this trip 'Great Tasmanian and New Zealand grocery stores'? Chocolate covered ginger and meat pies rock! Arnott's cookies aren't bad either. Today is Children's Day in NZ and we haven't seen any evidence of the festivities so far. Every day is...

Jan 11, 2007 - Lake Te Anau

We stayed in Te Anau for two nights, mainly because it was on the way to Milford Sound. On the map it looks further away which is true, but that's the way the road runs. It is a cute little town on the lake and we enjoyed staying there. There was not much to do in town, one thing we did do was watch a documentary on Fiordland, NZ. It was very interesting with great cinematography. The small cinema was also very nice. It had a bar where you could buy drinks to sip on while watching the movie, very civilized. We did a little hiking around the...

Jan 1, 2007 - Te Anau

Well I hope that everyone had a brilliant start to the year. Mum crashed early but I pushed through...till about 11.30 odd when I last looked at the clock. It was a lot quieter in the complex than I had expected so not sure where most were. Appreciated it though as we were set to get up at 6am. The reason for such an early start was that we had been told when we got lucky with a booking in Te Anau, to get there early. She said to be there about 11am but we had a really good run on the roads as they were all but empty, so arrived around...