In the Friday afternoon we arrived in Te Anau, after about an 3.5 hour drive. We had booked a lakeside motel, and a lakeside motel we got! Even the seats and chairs were set up to look out the front, onto the lake!

We had a little walk around the town, went to the visitors centre and booked for the tour to the Glowworm Cave after dinner, and the Milford Sound boat trip the next afternoon.

The Glowworm Cave can be found on the other side of Lake Te Anau, and a 40 mins boat trip gets you to the other side. In between the mountains, there's a lake, and a river flows down into Lake Te Anau. This river is about 6 km long, and they made a tourist attraction of the last 300m.

In the cave, where you're not allowed to take pictures, there are these insects that glow in the dark. The first but of the cave has got a little waterfall, where you can walk past, and a little further you get into a boat in the silent part of the cave, where the most of the glowworms stick to the ceiling of the cave. It looks great!

The total trip on the boat and into the cave takes about 2.5 hours, so that was about to be the Friday night. Now we had to hope for good weather on the Saturday, for going to the Milford Sound!

Our fabulous hosts in Queenstown (much love to you Mike and kat!), unfortunalty had at some point during our stay, to go back to work during the day leaving us to our own devices.  So on the spare of the moment we decided to take a drive down south to Te Anau, a sleepy little Township, on the tourist map for its Glow Worm Caves and its Milford Sound Trips. (both of which you leave for by boat from thier dainty pier).  Unfortunately we didnt have the time or money to embark on a trip to Milford Sound, shame as supposedly it is one of NZ's greatist sights.....next time!

Sadly we missed the afternoon trip and had to wait until 7.30pm to get on the boat and set off, by which time it was fiercely dark, hence us missing some stunning scenery on the boat journey on the way to the caves.  Not to worry though, as the short walk through the caves upon arrival well made up for it.  I have actually visited the waitomo caves on the north island, and I must admit that I was not as impressed by the Te Anau set up as that of the Waitomo....BUT  the surrounding scenary definately kicks arse, and I would recommend it either way.  Sitting on a boat, in pitch black darkness, being led by only tiny ropes tided into the rock face is quite an experience.....especially when greeting by the glow of thousands of glow worms! 

Te Anau, minus the caves is still worth the drive.  Its so remote, quaint, friendly...spectacular..........hang on a minute, I think ive just descibed every town in New Zealand.... lol   (true though!!!)

The journey to Milford Sound is just as amazing as Milford Sound it self and well worth the drive. Starting in Te Anau, the road heads north and follows the edge of Lake Te Anau before entering into the Fiordland National Park. You will be amazed at the many mountains, lakes, streams and waterfalls...I lost count. As I find in most of New Zealand the road is well sign posted and gives you plenty of direction on places to stop and view the scenery. My favorite stop is the Mirror Lakes. TIPS FOR THE TRIP: ** I recommend staying in Te Anau if you plan on visiting Milford Sound. There are coaches that come in from Queenstown which is about a 5 hour journey one way. It makes for a really long day. ** The journey from Te Anau one way takes about 2 hours with out stopping. So allow your self plenty of time to get to Milford, especically if you are booked on one of the boats. ** Make sure you have a full tank of gas before you leave Te Anau as there are none on the way or in Milford. Unless you choose to take one of the tours that is, I am sure the bus driver will remember to fill up! ** Pack a lunch and/or snacks and drinks as I only counted one small cafe in Milford. Some of the boat tours offer packed lunches. ** Check the weather, especially in the winter months. The road will close if there is a lot of snow due to possible avalanches. It is the only road that will take you to Milford. ** Dress in layers and bring rain gear. Best to be prepared. ** Charge your camera batteries or bring extra as you will want to take hundreds of photos. Oh, and plenty of film for those that have yet to go digital. ** Keep an eye out for the Kea parrots. These arctic parrots are quite beautiful but are known to like rubber. When you are busy looking at the scenery they may get busy at pecking at the rubber around the windscreen of your car with their beaks. ** And lastly be prepared to be awe inspired by this beautiful piece of the world!! And that is all before you even get to Milford Sound.

Time to leave Queenstown. We had a lot of fun but need to go on. 9 am, time to leave but first we need to do some shopping. We then drove over the devil's staircase. We stopped in Kingston for a coffeestop and took pictures of the train. Train?? The Kingston Flyer Steam Train is a famous vintage steam train that runs twice daily on the South Island of New Zealand. While we continuo our tour we asked for much more photostops then they usually do. It is so beautiful to see the snow on the mountains. Arriving at Te Anau we walked around the lake but first we visited a birdpark. We came back around 4:30. After an early diner we left for a tour to see the glow-worms. It was not what I expected. It took us almost 3 hours to go there, see the glowworms and get back. There were only a few... I mean 50-100. What was I expecting. Still dont know.
Back in Te Anau we went straight to "the Moose" because it was saturday evening and partytime. Late in the evening (night) we headed back to our Fiordland Hotel and Motel .

Having spent two days in the wilderness, myself and the lovely Katie decided to go for beer and pizza on our return to civilisation. The pizza and beer were wonderful and feel like a few games of pool I dragged her to The Moose a pub on the lake front in Te Anau.

We had a couple of games before I got challenged by a couple of the locals in the bar. I'm not bad at pool, but for some reason on this particular day I just couldn't miss. I set about beating very one in the bar... the result was that we got a lot of drinks bought for us. oh the horror.

Problems did arise when one of the locals decided to challenge me and I potted six balls off the break, one of the randoms started cheering me on and this bloke grabbed him by the throat and threw him against the wall. Deciding that this wasn't exactly in the spirt of the game I decided to end the game there and then.

All in all a really really good day, however on reflection the tequilla was probably a bit of a bad idea.

It's make up a round track. Going at the Pyke is really going into the bush! very insulated place, no many people go over there.

At the Big Bay I meet some hunters who gave me some meat they just hunt down (deer!) and after a day rest I went to the Hollyford which I found to be nice but not much more.

Towards Milford Sound - Mirror Lakes, Te Anau Downs, Homer Tunnel, The Chasm, Humboldt Falls.

LOTR - Rainbow Beach Reserve (River Anduin),
         - Mavora Lakes ( Fangorn Forest, Nen Hithoel, Silverlode River)

In Te Anau - just relaxing at moment and getting bag repacked. Bit of a walk tomorrow so need less weight to carry.

In Q/T next couple of days and will have a nice steak. Been eating pasta mainly.

Back to today. Just had a walk up main street, nothing special except that I brought dinner for tonight. The weather is nice at the moment - no doubt will move in tomorrow for Milford - though I'm hoping not.

Then back to Q/T. So big day tomorrow, but relaxing next couple of days in Q/T.

Leaving Dunedin we drove on to Te Anau where we spent the night before heading to Milford Sound the next day. The drive was really scenic, huge sheer cliffs on both sides at points and as the weather was bad there was waterfalls pouring all down the sides. Once we got there it was so cloudy that we decided it wasn't worth to do the boat trip as couldn't really see anything but was worth it for the drive.

Hey Everyone,

The last few days I've been in the deep south of New Zealand.  Actually where we stayed last night, Curio Bay, may well be the furthest south I ever get (unless I go to the very south tip of South America or Antarctica).  It is 4800km from the South Pole.  I joined the "Bottom Bus" which is much smaller - only 13 people on the bus.  All of which are from England except me.  I don't quite understand some of their conversations about crumpets and tea and such.  Three of the guys are complete assholes but the rest are nice (some are from the initial Kiwi Bus I was on).  Last night in Curio Bay (population 11) we stayed in a small hostel with no TV or internet or anything really so we got to know each other pretty well and played some little games and read to kill time.  We had an amazing meal last night.  We saw a 180 million year old fossilized forest and the rarest species of penguin coming in from sea (yellow eyed penguin).  Tonight we are staying in Te Anau, a lovely little town on a big lake (about 55km long, second biggest in NZ).  Our hostel is right on the lake.  I think most of us will just chill and watch a movie tonight.  Most are sick (including myself), it was inevitable really with us all sharing a bus and rooms.  Almost everybody is coughing.  The south is definitely more cold.  I've been wearing almost all of my layers everyday.

Tomorrow we are off to Milford Sound - it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful things to see in this country but I've heard it's quite weather dependent.

I will update again soon,

Hannah

On leaving Queenstown, we headed around to Te Anau - about a 2 hour drive and not a lot to see on the way apart from lots more mountains!  We passed a cycle race going around the lake near Queenstown, don't know how these people can pedal up and down these mountains, but they must enjoy it!  Also passed "Stu's World Famous Fly Fishing Tackle Shop" (note for Melissa's Dad!).  Our holiday park in Te Anau was right opposite the town centre, so a great location to just wander around for a while.  This town is the base point for Milford and Doubtful Sound trips so has quite a few nice restaurants and cafes as many coach tours come through.  We can recommend "Indian Summer" Indian restaurant next to the cinema, in particular the take-away - we spent $33 and got enough food for dinner, lunch the next day and then dinner again - can't complain about that!!  It was also very good quality.

The next morning we left early for our trip to Milford Sound.  You can do coach trips from Queenstown and Te Anau, but because we have the car we drove there ourselves.  It's about a 2 hour drive to the boat terminal and plenty to see on the way.  We didn't stop on the way there, because weren't sure how long it would take.  One of the highlights is the 1.2km long Homer Tunnel - It took 20 years to build and is quite steep with a rough road.  It's quite scary to drive through because you go into the pitch black from daylight and it takes a while for your eyes to adjust, even with the car headlights on you feel like you can't see anything.  We recommend you go between 9am and 6pm if you're of a less adventurous spirit, because that's when the traffic lights operate for the tunnel, so less likely to come upon anything coming the other way.  On arrival at the boat terminal we slathered on the insect repellant - the sand flies were really bad,even the visitor centre was full of them.  Knowing that they're a fact of life on the west coast means we've been pretty vigilant about the Aerogard and we don't seem to have been bitten since Melissa's attack at Franz Josef.  We took a 10.30am Nature Cruise with Real Journeys and it was great.  The boat was smaller than the main scenic cruise boats (takes about 80 people) and even though it was fully booked, you had plenty of room to wander around and not be shoulder to shoulder with people.  The scenery on the Sound is quite spectacular, surrounded by enormous mountains and glacial valleys.  Milford and Doubtful Sounds are not actually sounds, but fiords as they were carved by glaciers rather than rivers.  But for some reason they were called sounds and that has stuck.  The trip goes up one side of the Sound out into the Tasman Sea and then back down the other.  You see lots of waterfalls and inlets, and even some fur seals.  By the time we arrived back at 1pm the coach crowds were arriving so it was very busy at the terminal - it is recommended that you go for a morning or late afternoon trip to avoid the tourist buses, if possible.  The other disadvantage of Milford Sound is that is the more popular one and is consequently buzzing with small planes and helicopters all the time, plus many more boats.  The "serenity" is somewhat spoiled, but still very interesting.  On the way back to TeAnau we stopped at Murray Gunn's Museum and Cabins at Hollyford Camp.  This area was opened up by his father, Davie, who drowned in the 1950's whilst crossing a river on his horse.  Murray took over and the museum is very interesting, lots of artefacts from old homes and camps in the area and some hilarious signs (not sure that they're supposed to be funny, but they are!) - a bargain for $1 each entry.  Also stopped at the Mirror Lakes and the Cascades.  The Mirror Lakes had a slight ripple on the waters because of breeze, but we could still see ourselves (vaguely).

Next day was a trip to Doubtful Sound, only a 15 minute drive to Manapouri where you get onto the ferry.  Lo and behold, our bicycle man was there too, the chap we've been passing since Buller Gorge.  He's doing really well, because we're driving, he's on a bike and yet he's keeping our pace - quite impressive.  The ferry left a bit late, but the trip across Lake Manapouri to West Arm was beautiful.  The clouds were sitting about halfway up the mountains and the lake was still, so quite peaceful.  The girl at the desk asked if we were any relation to the Hutchings family that started the company - we said no, but later though we should have said yes because might have got silver service!  Mind you, we were really impressed with the trip, the boat was brand new and the staff all very friendly and informative.  When you arrive at West Arm, you hop on a bus to drive over Wilmot Pass, the road from the start of the Sound to the Manapouri Power Station.  The road was built in 2 years in very difficult conditions to provide access for the power station construction.  We stopped at a couple of places for lovely views and once arrived at the boat headed straight out into the Sound.  This time we saw some dolphins as well as fur seals, so quite lucky.  The trip took about 3 hours and once again went out to the Tasman Sea.  The scenery does probably not have as great a "wow" factor as Milford Sound, but we actually preferred it.  It is much quieter (hardly any boats and no planes) yet still has lovely waterfalls and scenic inlets.  At once point, we went up one of the arms and the captain turned the whole boat off - you just sat in the quiet listening to the birds and the waterfalls, really lovely.  At the end of the trip, we drove back over Wilmot Pass and (after a slight 30 minute delay because the bus broke down!) went down into the Manapouri Power Station.  You drive down a 2km tunnel, spiralling underground, to view the machine hall and its turbines.  The power all goes to the Comalco Aluminium Smelter at Bluff, 171km away.  The bus driver was very good and specifically asked if anyone was uncomfortable with going underground, giving you the opportunity to stay above if you wished.  The trip back across the lake was fabulous, the light was starting to change (being around 5.30pm), the cloud had all cleared and the views were an incredible end to a lovely day.  We had dinner that night with our new friends Davide, Roberta and Kate, who we met on the trip - most enjoyable!

(Jan) Up early (with Daniel!) to get the early coach with Alan (Steve) and Christine to Queenstown. Met some previous fellow travellers on the bus. Lovely ride through the Cardona Valley which is busy with skiers in Winter. Passed through an old gold panning township or two. Queenstown a busy bustling town after the quiet road. Had time to kill so went for a wander round the shops and for coffee(s). Met Steve/Alan & Christine back at the car hire office where we picked up our Nissan Pulsar. Thrown abit initially as automatic and I could shift it into drive. Smooth runner once we got going. Had a guided commentary and much good conversation on road to te Anau. Alan & Christine live in North Island but basically work hard so they can play hard at the tramping game. Interesting to hear about NZ from the inside. Accommodation for 2 nights at Te Anau lovely - almost as good as Wanak - view not as high up over the lake and both missing the varied company but motel room very clean and very pluch and same price as bare room we had at Fox sharing hostel facilities. Treated ourselves to NZ wine as here for 2 nights and bought a few bits and pieces to take home. Weather very stormy tonight after fine day. Managed to get thumbnail cards of photos printed off - looking good. THINK I've emailed them home too. We saw a tent walking across the site tonight. Obviously someone who feels very insecure and doesn't want to be seen. There's got to be joke in there somewhere - What do you call a man with a tent on his head? Answers on a postcard please.

So, we`re getting ready to say g`bai to Q`town and suddenly it turns all gloomy and rainy. We left early morning, new faces and a new driver Nevin. We headed out to Te Anau and reached rather early. It was raining through out. The hostel we stayed in was ultra hip. We all got our own rooms! And we headed off for our Milford Sound cruise.

That started with a slow drive up the Milford Road that has many picturesque stops. We took fotos everywhere, inc. one place with the infamous "Vikram missing the bus" incident as I ran through the tunnel trying to catch up. LOL, I feel so foolish thinking of that day. And everyone was like, "how could you run through the dark tunnel?!".

Milford Sound cruise as such was luvly. Really nice, as nice as the travel books market it to be. We got done with that, picked up fish and chips and drove back to the hostel. Quiet night at the hostel. I used it as an opportunity to recharge all the mobile and camera batteries and slept very early, around 10:30pm itself.

There was thankfully a bit more time to play with this morning, since we didn't have to leap in to a canyon until about noon.  We packed up our gear and a brief debate over what to do with our packs followed, however I knew there was a snowflake's chance in hell that I was going to come back up that  hill for any reason so we stowed them down in town.

Brekky at the Vudu cafe was quite good, again fantastic coffee, maybe everywhere in Queenstown has great coffee; I certainly didn't manage to find a bad one.  We were wary that whatever was in our stomachs was going to be hurtled over a canyon wall with us in the next two hours, so didn't overload on grease too much.

Around came noon, and it was time yet again to pile in to a van and venture our way to the Shotover river.  The bus ride is slightly longer than that for the jet boat, passing it's launching area we saw that the river was now flooded so counted ourselves lucky that we'd gone yesterday, though in hindsight we might of been better off hanging on that luck for....I don't know.....leaping in to a canyon! The heart does start to get going as you climb the hill to the swing, and can see some views way down towards the river

Basically the canyon swing is set up about 100 metres above a river, the first 60 metres of which is a freefall after which you break in to an arc that swings you out deeper in to the canyon.  Their marketing people are quite clever really since they advertise all these different jumping styles, at the end of the day I think the real buzz is going to come from hurtling towards the ground regardless of how you're doing it.

One of the English guys in the group bailed out early, not even making it in to a harness on the platform.  There was possibly some logic to his decision given that the scales they used to determine your weight range probably would have had difficulty telling the weight difference between a fridge and a chilly bin. The rest of us persisted though, piling out on to the platform, my brother putting his hand up for the first jump.  He elected for the running, feet first leap out and seemed to survive despite my insistence at being involved in the way his harness was attached.

I put my hand up for the next attempt, I'm not sure if us McPhersons are just fools but we weren't having too much trouble playing with gravity.  As I've seen on many an adventure activity before, the guides continually banter with you, telling some of the worst jokes that have ever existed, with the intention of distracting you from what you are doing.  For all I know maybe it works, since I've never had any problem leaping off those edges, though just once I'd like to try without the guide banter.  I must admit that their last cry of "No wait, not yet" as I was off the platform did get me smiling :)  I went for a running, head first jump and though it was great it was just over too quick. 

My brother decided he hadn't had enough so went back for another jumping style (only $40 for an extra jump, $139 initially) and got some good footage by strapping his camera to his wrist this time. I paid money yet again for the exorbitantly priced photos, I've always managed to justify it to myself since they are quite good shots, but there's no denying that it is robbery.

So after we were all adrenalined out, there wasn't enough time to do much else (the Gondola would have been touch and go) so all that was left was to jump on a bus to Te Anau. For the record, on a bright sunny day the lake alongiside this road (Lake Te Anau?) is spectacular!

Had dinner down at the Moose, and chatted away to Toby, Rupert and Sarah from Wales/England who had just come off the Kepler track so gave us insight in to what was to come for us..

Accommodation

http://www.teanaubackpackers.co.nz/

TE ANAU LAKEFRONT BACKPACKERS
48-50 Lakefront Rod, Te Anau, New Zealand
PH + 64 3 249 7713 or 0800 200 074 Tollfree in New Zealand.
info@teanaubackpackers.co.nz

Not a fantastic backpackers, but did the trick.  Not too many toilets that I could see (didn't look too hard admittedly) and shower water pressure was fairly low.  Room just had a bunk and that was it.  Staff were friendly though, and there were a lot more buildings (TV room etc) that I didn' t explore

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR MY CANYON SWING PICTURES ONCE THEY ARE SCANNED IN