November 29 - New Zealand: Te Anau (South Island)
Our campsite is separated from Lake Te Anau by a quiet road in this very sleepy town. A very sleepy town that, at 3:00 this morning, was the sight of a dance party right in front of our campground. I suppose that some bar had just closed down and a group of kids moved their party to the nearby lake. Then they moved the party to a house down the street, and the music went on until about 5:00AM. So we were a bit sleepy when the alarm went off an hour later.
Today we went to see the famous Milford Sound.
Of course, it was raining.
The Fjordlands get seven meters of rain a year, so rainy days on the Sound are not unusual at all. But that doesn't mean that we have to like it, right? We had planned to do this wonderful two-hour hike called The Divide, but since we couldn't see more than a few hundred feet away, we decided that it wasn't worth it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me describe the drive to the Sound.
Drive to Milford Sound
Te Anau is the closest town to Milford Sound, because Milford Sound really isn't a town at all. It's more of a scenic point. We left Te Anau at 8:30 to get a head start on the day. The drive was windy, wet, and quiet. Despite the fact that Milford Sound is a day-trip for almost all visitors, the roads were empty except for us and the occasional van. After an hour and a half we reached the place where The Divide track started, but it was raining so hard that we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. So we decided to go straight to the Sound and see some sights.
The drive was an additional half-hour, and we had to pass through a long sloping tunnel. This tunnel was literally a tunneled-out cave in the mountain. The walls were rough rock and there were no lights save from our headlights. Jon wondered why - after spending the money to tunnel out the mountain - the government decided not to put electricity through it. But we figured it was because of the water coming from the ceilings and walls. Our windshield wipers were on the entire time through the tunnel because it was so wet!
When we reached the other end of the tunnel, we were greeted by tall mountains and many, many little waterfalls.
We kept driving to the Sound, where we parked in a bus parking lot because - for whatever reason - the car parking lot was 500 meters away from the visitor's center. We walked out to the water and snapped a few pictures. We were soaked within minutes.
After looking at the Sound, we decided to go back and check out some of the paths and hope that the weather might clear.
The "View" of Milford Sound
Long story short: we did two walks. One was a quick walk to a place called "The Chasm" which was a river that had carved some interesting shapes in some large boulders. There was a sign with a quote from David Henry Throreau which read, "The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.". The other walk we did was a "Nature Walk" to Lake Gunn. This was a nice little stroll through some pretty rainforest before we reached the lake. It drizzled a bit but it was nice to do nonetheless.
We had lunch before the Nature Walk, sitting in the car and looking at the lovely purple and pink flowers. After the walk, we drove back to Te Anau and arrived at the campsite around 2:30. Of course, back here it was cloudy but had barely drizzled all day.
Nature Strikes
Being the city girl I am (does that still apply anymore?), this nature thing is wreaking havoc with my allergies. I had a sneezing attack so repetitive that Jon stopped saying "Bless You". In fact, he began to Un-Bless me instead. After an hour of sneezing, I felt as though I'd been put through the wringer. Jon went out for a run and I crashed for about 2 hours in the tent. He woke me up when he was ready to start dinner.
Jon finally logs his runs in NZ! (written on 4 Dec.) - Run #21
Yesterday's run along the dirt road was so nice I decided to try it again today, only this time I would skip the other part of the lake where the hikers only path was. This was a good choice because the flowers still smelled as good as the day before and I was soon well past yesterday's turnaround point. I ran all of the way until I came across a creek that ran from the lake to some of the cattle grazing land. This was about where I wanted to turn around anyway.
Based on the reaction I got yesterday when I tried to talk to the sheep, I decided that they were downright snobby and didn't want to talk to them today! It was sunny though so it was a bit warmer than yesterday afternoon and I probably got some sun while I was out.
Key Trauma
I put some laundry in the machines and walked back to the car to put the laundry detergent away. As I went to get the car key out of my pocket, it slipped out of my hands and fell on my foot. Because I was walking, my foot kicked the key a ways away. I watched it skid across the pavement right over a sewer grate. The key itself slipped through the grate, but the plastic key tag teetered perilously on the edge for a second or two.... And then fell through.
I thought, "You have GOT to be kidding me."
The water in the sewer was pitch black and I couldn't see the key at all. But the "ker-plop" sounded pretty shallow. Unfortunately, the grate also looked sealed. I must have made some noise of alarm, because the girl in the van next to the grate said, "Oh no!" Her boyfriend said, "What's up?". She said, "Her keys just dropped down the sewer!"
I went to the office for help, and we came back to the sewer the girl and her boyfriend had a fishing pole out and were trying to fish out my keys. So sweet!
The man from the office got a large pole of some sort, banged against the grate which loosened the seal, and reached down and pulled out the keys.
The entire ordeal lasted about 3 minutes, but it felt like forever!
Dinner was BBQ Chicken, potatoes and veggies. Then we sat in the TV lounge and read, updated journals, and watch Robbie Williams in concert on TV. Jon crashed early, which is understandable because of the full day we had today.