Day 9: Queenstown to Te Anau.


Spent the morning walking around Queenstown. Beautiful sunny day, took lots of photos on short walk to town from YHA. Bought a new waist pouch, a torch and a drinking bottle. Had Chinese seafood lunch in town before leaving for Te Anau. Another beautiful scenic drive. Did not follow recommended Hwy 6 to Lumsden the Hwy 94, but took a short cut through the country side near Garston which rejoin Hwy 94 near Mossburn. Te Anau is another beautiful lakeside town. Took best photos of trip so far here.




0800 Woke up to a beautiful morning. Stepped outside the YHA for a walk by the lake and to take some photos(of course).



The sun was shining, birds were singing, gulls doing their loops over lake, ducks diving for their breakfast, a cool breeze rippling the water, I can stay here forever.



Queenstown: vacation central of New Zealand. But not this time, today we leave for the next town, Te Anau.



0900 After breakfast, we decided to take a walk to town. The ladies wanted to shop for souvenirs. Queenstown still lies cooly, shaded by the long shadow cast by the surrounding hills under the strong morning sun. The Wakatipo cruise ship was just steaming out for the morning lake tour. Many plants were in full bloom.



The plum blossoms, in petals of pristine white, blushed prettily pink and yellow under the morning sun, framed against an azure sky. We strolled slowly down tree lined avenues, cooled by a light breeze blowing across the lake.



A flea market was in full swing, just as we got into town. Local arts and crafts, from handmade jewelry, paintings and carvings to hand died cloths and homemade preserves. Many people were out shopping or just enjoying coffee or a glass of wine in the warm sunshine.

1145 As agreed upon earlier, we met up at the pier to look for a restaurant to lunch in. Finally, we settled on having seafood at "Memories of Hong Kong", the same Chinese restautant Noel and Allison had their dinner in the previous night. We had a sizzling seafood platter, seafood noodles, scallops and broccoli and a steamed fish. All agreed that the best dish was the sizzling seafood platter, a heaping combination of scallops, mussels, fish, prawns and calamari. Scallops are served here with the roe attached, so they are huge! We were stuffed, the bill came up to NZD124, still cheaper than dining at a Western restaurant.

1305 The lunch took us some time to finish. Time to head back to the YHA and leave for Te Anau. Again, since we have booked the Te Anau YHA in advance, we were not in a hurry.



1400 Wong took the first shift at the wheel. About 25km beyond Queenstown was Kingston, which offered this superb view of lake Wakatipo, looking back northwards. Despite the cool air, the inside of the car was quite stuffy and warm. The roads were surprisingly strait, so shortly after leaving Queenstown soon everyone (except the driver, fortunately) was lulled to sleep.



1515 We reached Garston, 'the most inland town' of the South Island, that is if indeed you want to call it a town. It consisted all of three or four shops along Hwy 6, and a novelty signpost giving the line-of-sight distances to major NZ locations: 108km to Milford Sound.... our true destination.



1600 A little after Garston, we had taken a right detour off Hwy 6 to join Hwy 94 at Mossburn instead of the recommended route through Lumsden. This shaved off some 20+km from the 170km Lumsden route. The road condition of the detour was just as superb as the highway, driving past verdant pastures on rolling plains that seemed to stretch all the way to the foot of the snow capped mountains in the horizon. The landscape was alternately dotted with the white of grazing sheep and the brown of cattle, including these mildly bored but curious bunch of NZ prime cuts. Wondered why I've read that sheep stink worse than cattle, coz I can tell you now that when I took these photos, the latter was definitely more aromatic, or perhaps I was standing downwind then...



1640 Reached the town of Te Anau! Another picture postcard perfect town lying beside its namesake lake. Curious, although much smaller than Queenstown, Te Anau seemed to have a proportionately larger population of Orientals. Most of the souvenir shops seemed to have been run by Chinese or Vietnamese. There were even two Chinese restaurants in this small town of 3000 or so. The YHA facility here is modern and superb although they do not offer the convenience off self-contained units. We shared a family room which sleeps 5 in individual bunks. Shortly after settling down, we headed out to the park by the lake for a walk.



The sun played hide-and-seek amongst the clouds, chasing shadows across the landscape. Many ducks made their home on Lake Te Anau, including this handsome mallard and his pretty mate. I spent a little time watching this cute but possessive pair doing everything together, waddling to the pond, diving for fishes or just paddling in the water, never straying far from each other.



At first the town itself was a little overcast, but the sun emerged just before sunset, throwing the town into sharp relief...



The warm evening sunlight brought a riot of spring colours to life offering us the best photo opportunities thus far on this trip, to capture the beauty of springtime New Zealand!

2000 I hung around to watch as the sun dipped for the last last time that day behind a wall of clouds, setting them aflame just before sinking below the horizon. Another beautiful close to another perfect day. I headed back to the hostel for a simple dinner and the night's rest.

Posted: Sun - October 19, 2003 at 09:11 AM      

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