November 28 - New Zealand: Te Anau (South Island)
It rained all night long. At one point it rained so hard that I thought it was hail and that we'd be impaled to death. This weather is crazy. Jon got up at 1:30AM to use the loo when the rain had briefly stopped. Within 30 seconds of him coming back into the tent, the rain started up again and didn't let up until morning.
It's such a pain in the butt to put away a tent in the rain. There's really no way to keep it dry.
We made breakfast - what Jon called "Kitchen Sink Omelets" because we threw in every loose vegetable we had in the cooler, except the cooler itself. The end result was a mushroom-onion-red pepper- green pepper-potato-garlic omelet. And it was really good!
Then we hit the road to go to Te Anau. Yesterday we did a bit of waffling as to whether we should stay in Queenstown or Wanaka for the night. The decision was made when we were in Wanaka at 5PM and didn't want to wait to get to Queenstown to set up our tent in the rain. So we stayed in Wanaka last night and drove through Queenstown today.
Queenstown
Queenstown looks like a little ski resort town, which is basically what it is. There are some cute little shops and pedestrian malls, not to mention some great ski shops. We wandered around town for a bit and decided to make use of a Pizza Hut coupon we had for lunch. Unfortunately it didn't open until noon so we had an hour to kill and went to the Internet Cafe instead. The rain had stopped, and although the sun wasn't out the weather looked relatively dry. After 12 we ordered our pizza and took it out to the Lake Wakatipu to eat on the shoreline. The seagulls quickly figured out that they weren't getting squat from us so they left us alone to eat in peace.
Back at the car, we were happy to see that we hadn't received a parking ticket. This is lucky for us, considering we'd parked in a 10 minute spot only a few feet from the Queenstown police station, and had been there for about an hour and a half. We climbed in the car and left to finish up the drive to lovely Te Anua.
The Drive to Te Anua
The drive was great. The sun came out and we were practically the only people on the roads. This isn't unusual, as there never seems to be more than 20 cars on any road at any given hour of the day. Most roads are only 2 lanes and it's rare to see another vehicle. But when we do, courtesy abounds as either they pull over to let us pass or we pull over to let them pass. It's all love here in New Zealand.
The Drive to Te Anua
Jon has counted 7 one-lane bridges for our drive today. We're getting quite used to these as well and I'm actually a bit disappointed when we cross a two-lane bridge.
I should mention that there are 3.8 million people in NZ. There are 50 million sheep. This means the people are outnumbered 13 to 1. Sometimes they're naked sheep, having just been shorn (shaved? shaven?) for cotton (uuuuhhhhh... I mean wool). But we see more sheep than we do people.
Te Anau Mountain View Top 10 Holiday Park (www.teanaumountainview.co.nz)
We arrived in Te Anau around 3:30ish. The sun had come out and the lake was beautiful, so we were in a cheery mood. We found the campsite with no problems - the Te Anau Mountain View Holiday Park is a 5-Star campground, and has won multiple awards from the New Zealand Tourist Association. This place is the Waldorf of campsites. And it was packed, too. There were only a few tent sites left when we arrived, but we ended up with a lovely sight at the end with a view of Lake Te Anau.
Our Tent and the Lake
After we set up tent, we made some reservations for later in the trip and tried to get spots on a scuba trip in Milford Sound tomorrow. Unfortunately, there's only one scuba facility on the Sound and they can only take out 4 people/day. So we couldn't go diving. Bummer.
Instead, we went out for a run/bike. Jon went running and I hired a bike from the campground. We went for a lovely outing around the lake and enjoyed the suddenly beautiful day. We were out for about an hour and ended up on a gravel road along the lake. The only things out there were us and the sheep. Stunning.
Jon running along Lake Te Anau
Jon finally logs his runs in NZ! (written on 4 Dec.) - Run #20
Right about now is a good time to point out that anyone that is counting my runs has probably noticed that I skipped "Run #17". This was the run in Singapore, which was absolutely awful. It was so hot and humid and sunny that I've chosen to count this as a run but just not write it up. It was basically one of those runs I'd like to forget.
There, now that that's out of the way...Heidi decided to bike with me while I went for a run along the lake. we went one way along the shore until we got to a hiker's only path after about 12 minutes. Since I'm a runner (not a hiker) and Heidi's a biker (again, not a hiker) we turned around back the way we had come. Waving at the camp as we ran past it. We came to a park that led to a dirt road that ran along the shore of Te Anau lake and also looked to be the access road to some prime sheep grazing land. Heidi loves it when I try to talk to the sheep so I tried ba-aahing at these guys but they must have spoken another dialect or something because they just looked up at me with a puzzled expression then went back to eating their grass.
The dirt road also had lots of the bushes with the yellow flowers that we have seen while driving. We're not sure what they are but they sure do smell good. Between the great smelling flowers, the scenery, and the run, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.
After our running/biking trip, Jon went to go shower and I started dinner, which was chicken and pasta. The kitchen was pretty crowded with campers/caravaners cooking their dinner. But everyone was very friendly, as always. We had dinner and then I went to shower in the pristine bathroom facilities. The place was sparkling shiny and clean. Then we settled into the lounge to watch an episode of "Band of Brothers" on TV.