We arrived at our most southerly location, Te Anau, at about 8pm in the pouring rain. After checking into the holiday park (Te Anau Top 10) we headed into the town center to look for a place to eat and recharge. The rain started lashing, and we came upon a restaurant called Baileyz so we gave it a shot. This place looked like an old beat up Smittys, but we were welcomed by friendly staff. The food was outstanding too, but the portions were unreal. Laura and I could have easily shared a main course meal.
Of a town with a population of only 4000 people, Te Anau has four different Italian restaurants, and two Chinese restaurants. I’m trying to figure out why anyone would travel to the south of New Zealand’s south island to get their Italian fix… and can’t. Oh well. If you’re in town, check out the Fat Duck or The Ranch (across the street from each other) for a good meal. Te Anau is also very quiet in the winter, so don’t expect any night life.
One of our goals while in Te Anau was to take a tour down to the Milford Sound. We ended up staying an extra two nights so we could time out Milford tour with some clear weather. The west coast of NZ’s south island gets a ton of rain, so we were lucky to find a window without.
During our extra couple days, we got caught up on some blogging, worked on some photos, and took a trip out to Mavora Lakes in search of some Lord of the Rings scenery:
South Mavora Lake
When the day for our Milford Sound arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we were the only two people on the bus. The tour (with Southern Discoveries) drives us for about 2 hours from Te Anau to the docks in Milford Sound, we then boarded a ship for a 2 hr cruise, and then took the same bus home. Since we were the only two on the bus, we basically had our own personal tour with Reece (the bus driver) and his wife. Here are some pictures from the trip:
Mirror Lake
Topping up with some glacier fresh water.
July 19, 2012 – Drive to Twizel
After spending an extra night in Te Anau, we decided to spend a day driving to get back on schedule:
Another Mirror Lake (Near Cornwall)
The Clay Cliffs next to Omarama
My GB
An unreal sunset in Twizel. No adjustments in Photoshop. It only lasted for about 7-8 minutes.
Out smoked salmon platter!
If you end up in Twizel, try out the Hunter’s Café on main street. We had the Smoked Salmon platter ($22 NZD) and it was amazing! There are several salmon farms nearby, so the salmon is nice and fresh. It was delicious; I want more!
July 20, 2012 – Mt. Cook Hike
Out next day trip was to Mt Cook National Park for a hike. There are great views of Mt Cook (The south island’s tallest peak) while driving into the park for about 50km. Funny enough you can’t actually see the peak of Mt Cook from the town of Mt Cook.
The hike we choose was into the Hooker Valley. Yes, we were getting dirty tramping through the Hooker Valley. Here are some photo highlights of the hike:
Mt Cook from afar
Hooker Valley and Glacier. You can see the icebergs from the calving glacier on the lake.
July 21, 2012 – Lake Tekapo
We had time for one night in Lake Tekapo on our way back to Christchurch. It’s a popular weekend vacation spot for a lot of locals. We didn’t have much time to give it a full tour, but did manage to fire up our BBQ for the first time.
Next stop is Christchurch to exchange out camper van for one with a working Diesel Heater. I must say that Wilderness (who supplies the van) has been fantastic trying to get this sorted out for us. They even offered to drive a van out to us to swap vehicles.
Thanks for reading!
-Neal & Laura
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