Sunday 16 February:
Much of the morning was spent dealing with ANZ Bank over a series of hacks into my credit card account which fortunately were stalled due to my use of two factor authorisation. ANZ systems put a hold on these attempts and sent me a text to ask “Yes” or “No” if I initiated any of these requests to pay. I immediately texted back “No” and straight away a reply came back that my card is “now cancelled” and a new card will be issued. Well done ANZ. I had long follow-up calls with a Bank officer re the fact that as I am travelling in the South Island for a further 2 months I would not have the new card being posted to Tauranga, and how could I pay for things such as forward bookings for campgrounds and ferry crossings.
For the afternoon I explored “Puzzling World” located on the main highway into town.
If you have driven into Wanaka from Cromwell you will be familiar with the above scene – actually, these are false fronts to the Illusion Rooms complex behind them. The other part of Puzzling World is a two stage Maze, one Classic (taking 30 to 60 minutes) the other Difficult (taking 60 to 90 minutes). I stuck with the separate entry fee for just the Illusion Rooms.
People were videoed when they walked into the room through the two separate doors, and could then view themselves on a 2 minute delay screening afterwards.
That is a real couple who just walked in the separate doors.
I next had a challenge with Ambigrams where two words occupy the same space.
You should spot this one easily —–
—— but this one is a little more mind-bending.
There were two sets of loos in the facility and it was suggested when buying your ticket that even if you did not want to use them, maybe it was worth having a look.
So, watch your step with this one —–
—– and do NOT use the wooden seat latrines on this one.
Perception is often influenced by whether one is viewing foreground or background.
These columns seem sort of ordinary when looking through into the room beyond —–
—- but looking back into the dark corridor behind them, something else is going on.
Monday 17 February
Wanaka had quietened down after the Ironman Wanaka Challenge weekend so I was able to take a long early morning walk along the waterfront to the iconic 70-year-old tree which grows in the lakebed.
Looking out from the foreshore to snow remaining in the high mountains.
Lake levels are low all over the region this year because of lack of rain.
And there were loads of people about at 9am, most from nearby carparks instead of having walked out from the town centre half an hour away as I did.
After a delicious chocolate sundae at Patagonia Chocolate Shop as a morning tea refresher following my walk, I took off south, stopping at Luggate’s notable Red Bridge built over the Clutha River. It was opened on October 28, 1915, and has been described as “one of the most attractively proportioned steel truss road bridges in the country”.
As you can see this Baltimore Truss is due for a coat of paint.
In Luggate village the reserve hosts this 2013 restoration of a 1904 wagon operated by local haulage contractors Reid and Sons Transport from the 1880s through to the 1920s.
As I passed through Cromwell it was time to stop for lunch in the van at the Dunstan View rest area on the lakeside east of town. Nectarines are my favourite fruit at the moment – they are right in season and delicious.
Heading South to Tapanui for the night I stopped off in Roxburgh at Trundles Café for an iced chocolate afternoon tea, and chatted to a local couple regarding the Roxburgh Cinema which burnt down around midday on 7 February. This attracted worldwide news as the cinema, opened 1897, is currently being assessed by the Guinness Book of records as the longest continuously operating cinema in the world. Eight engines from as far afield as Dunedin attended the blaze. I was told the fire had huge flames shooting up well above the roof line and the firefighters did a fantastic job saving the external brick walls of the building and protecting neighbouring properties.
Trundles Café is up the main street next door to this old commercial building.
Tuesday 18 February:
I woke to rain at the Whiskey Gully freedom camping area near Tapanui. This is a neat rural township with some interesting history. Take the local doctor who diagnosed what became known as “Tapanui Flu”.
Dr Snow was a highly respected amateur geologist as well.
Then there is the movie role that Tapanui had in 2015 as the village of Millhaven during the filming of “Pete’s Dragon”.
Did you see the movie? The story is set in timber country in the Pacific Northwest of the USA but was shot mainly in NZ, using Weta Digital to create the dragon, and Tapanui as the timber town, filming in the main street and at the old Blue Mountains Lumber mill. Other locations included Wellington, Taupo and Rotorua.
As a reminder of the production this repurposed old building still carries a poster of the dragon in its main street window.
Passing though Gore on my way to Te Anau I stopped off to check on the old family home at 244 Main Street (was 19A initially) which was a real mess when I saw it in April last year.
19A Main Street in 1964.
27 April 2024 – the house and garden had been neglected for years under tenancy ownership.
Tuesday morning’s view showing how the new owners of June 2024 have tidied up both garden and house.
Heading on for Te Anau I stopped off at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre at Mandeville Airfield. This was my first visit to the airfield since annual air shows in the 1950s. I remember Tiger Moths being flown by skilled topdressing pilots who used a spike on a wing tip during a low altitude flyby to pick up a handkerchief strung between two sticks at ground level.
Tiger Moths were the training craft of those early days and converted versions were widely used in aerial topdressing.
In March 1955 the Gore newspaper reported on sisters Jean, Elizabeth (Bub) and Dorothy Cross having all received their pilots licences from the Gore flight of Southland Aero Club, claiming it was a national and even an Australasian record in training three sisters to fly.
Dorothy (centre) was a 6th form classmate of mine at Gore High School
The Centre houses a lot of active older aircraft still used at air shows and events. This Mount Cook Flightseeing tiger moth is an example. The Croydon Workshop associated with the Centre has a highly respected reputation for restoring old aircraft and has many international clients.
I did a side trip to Manapouri on the way to Te Anau to check out harbour side parking for the motorhome for Wednesday’s trip to Doubtful Sound, and was fortunate to spot the “Two Wee Bookshops” down a side street. Both Barbara in Queensland and Paula in Auckland had recommended to me this little place was worth a visit.
Wee Bookshop 1 is in this cabin.
Wee Bookshop 2 is directly opposite the cabin.
I purchased owner Ruth Shaw’s book “The Bookseller at the End of the World” from Phil, who was minding the books that day. The bookshops close during winter as tourist traffic is low through Manapouri in the offseason.
Wednesday 19 February:
I arrived at the Boat Harbour on Lake Manapouri at 6.30am and had breakfast before packing a lunch and drink for the day.
Boarding was at 20 past 7 for 7.30 departure. There were about 170 passengers on this 7 hour outing.
The day was overcast and misty as we headed for the power station intake and Visitor Centre at West Arm to then take buses to Doubtful Sound Harbour.
Water intake structure to, and electricity output pylons from, the power station 230m deep underground within the mountain range. The tailrace is a 10km tunnel discharging into Doubtful Sound.
Three buses took the boat passengers up over the Wilmot Pass down to join the 3 hour return cruise up Doubtful Sound out to the Tasman Sea.
Southland is famous for its beech forests which cover Fiordland National Park. The trees normally grow to about 25m and reach maturity at around 150 years.
We stopped to view this giant thought to be at 650 years the oldest beech in the forest. In viewing it Peter Jackson developed his idea for the talking tree Ent’s in Lord of the Rings.
When we hit the top of the Wilmot Pass our driver stopped for the view.
Wilmot Pass viewing point through the bus window in rain and mist.
If it had been a fine day, this is what the view would have provided. The drive down from here was extremely steep, but our driver (a Japanese lady named Yuka, which means “good-good” in English) handled both driving and commentary with skill and humour.
So it was off the buses and onto our cruise boat to head up the Sound.
Low cloud created an air of mystery and anticipation as throttles were opened and we surged forward ——
—— with our wake washing vigorously at the shore as we navigated between islands on our way west.
Seymour island was named after an ex-school teacher who retreated there to find solitude and stayed for 7 years, becoming a birdlife specialist.
The low clod persisted throughout our 1½ hour voyage out to the Tasman sea.
We only saw three craft on the Sound as we headed out, two crayfishers close to shore —–
—— and the motorised sailing vessel Fiordland Navigator returning from an overnight voyage.
Our trip up the Sound was billed as a Wildlife Cruise, but we had to wait until we reached the sea to see both seals and sooty shearwaters, and there was plenty of each.
The two rocky Nee Islets were covered in fur seals. These were nearly hunted to extinction in the late 1800s, one ship alone arriving in Sydney with 60,000 skins for sale.
Looking directly south down the coast towards Dagg, Breaksea and Dusky Sounds. Actually, Yuka told us the only Sounds in NZ are the Marlborough Sounds. The Fiordland Sounds are all fiords, carved out by glaciers. By the time it was realised that map makers had made this mistake it was too late to change the names to fiords, so the whole area was instead called Fiordland.
On the return journey we explored various arms of the Sound including Crooked Arm where we delighted in the rata trees which are blooming throughout the Fiordland forests this year. They are NZs tallest flowering tree with Southern Rata reaching up to 15m with a trunk diameter of 1 metre. Southern Rata are spread throughout the country from Northland and Coromandel, the South Island West Coast, and the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. They only flower every few years and this summer is a boom period particularly throughout Fordland.
We were treated to individual trees close to water level to ——-
—– whole hillsides sprinkled with blooms.
Our trip missed the rain that was forecast for the day, but at 12.30pm as our bus left the Doubtful Sound harbour the afternoon tour was boarding in heavy rain.
Our cruise vessel, MV Titiroa, docking at West Arm harbour prior to our boarding for the return trip down the lake.
And so a great day out from RealNZ, including the Manapouri Lake cruise, the Wilmot Pass bus ride and the Doubtful Sound trip to the Tasman Sea.
Thursday 20 February:
This day no photos. It was a busy housekeeping day with laundry and van. Then bookings for campsites and tours over the next week followed by a lunch treat at Kea Café (pulled pork sandwich plus ginger beer). Rain set in late afternoon so it may be wet as I head up the Eglington Valley on Friday.
Friday 21 February:
No, the rain cleared overnight, so it was a bright sunny start towards Lake Gunn for the night. Some 28km out of Te Anau was the Milford Track ferry service with a group of trampers waiting for their 11.30 departure to Glade House at the top of the lake where they would commence their adventure.
Water taxi for transfers to the start of the track.
One of our favoured places on the trip north toward Milford Sound is the Eglington Valley with its huge swards of grassland.
There is a lone rock in the centre of this picture of the Valley – where did that come from?
Next stop was Mirror Lakes with the elevated board walk within the bush edge providing an overview of the “lake” (really one elongated pond). To the frustration of the crowd of visitors when I arrived, there were no useful reflections as half a dozen or so of NZ scaup (diving ducks) were diving vigorously like whales (head down and tail up) disappearing beneath the surface for 10 to 15 seconds hunting for juicy weeds and water snails, then popping out of the water several metres away. The ripples created by their diving eliminated any chance of reflections,
I must say these little ducks were cute – this scaup has beads of water sitting on her back and head after surfacing from a dive (yes, I checked my bird book and this one is definitely female).
So I offer you last year’s reflection from 23 April 2024. But see those flax bushes along the edge of the “lake”. I managed a glimpse of one today as I left the board walk.
Looking through a gap in the trees to an area where those little ducks were not scavenging.
I arrived at Lake Gunn mid-afternoon and immediately set out on the 45 minute loop nature walk. The beech trees here are old, covered in moss, with their leaf litter forming a brown carpet on the walking track.
“I “borrowed” this photo from DoC as my shot had too much light in it.
South Island robin are the most likely birds interacting with walkers as the leaf litter becomes disturbed by passing boots enabling these friendly birds to dash down behind one looking for worms. I have several photos of looking down at a robin at my feet, but luckily he (yes, a male according to the bird book) popped up onto a tree branch to take a look at me.
Females have a grey breast, males yellowish white lower breast and belly with a white patch above the bill.
Gunn at Lake Gunn (view looks north).
I set up camp with my Annual DoC Pass at Cascade Creek next door to the Lake Gunn Nature Walk. This was my base for 2 nights while I explored the area.
The camping area has 140 formal numbered sites, and seemed pretty full on Friday night. On Saturday night it was very crowded, so I took a 25 minute walk after tea and counted 162 motorhomes/campervans, plus 10 tenting parties with cars. After I got back at 7.30pm another 6 motorhomes rolled in over the next 2 hours. Each morning vans started leaving from before 6am, presumably heading for Milford Sound.
Saturday 22 February:
I did not intend to travel to Milford this trip, having thoroughly explored it last year, but I wanted to see the outcome of the major construction of a new avalanche shelter at the Hollyford entrance to the Homer Tunnel which was under way in April 2024. So I left 7am arriving at the tunnel location 7.30 and walked up to the entrance some 700m from the carpark at the Milford Road HQ buildings.
You can see the original tunnel entrance as per last year at the curved section where the road suddenly dips steeply into the decline through the tunnel
As per the concrete work on the Kaikoura restoration work, Maori art decorated the facing portal to the avalanche shelter.
I took a long walk up the valley to the right of the tunnel entrance ——
—– which enabled me to look back on traffic entering the tunnel on a green light giving the go-ahead to journey to Milford (the tunnel is operated on a one-way system).
As I climbed steadily up through the valley toward the waterfall in the distance I found the vegetation suddenly changed from scrubby bushes to flowers.
This is one of many species which seemed to exist only above a certain elevation.
During the walk up the valley I could hear the continuous calls of kea, but could not see them anywhere. However as I returned to the avalanche shelter they were suddenly all around me, looking like they would untie my boot laces if given the chance. The have beautiful red plumage on their backs and the undersides of their wings, only visible when flying, but my camera could not catch this colour at the pace they flew.
So I had to make do with this shot of the guy at my feet.
The low cloud Saturday morning persisted throughout much of the day. Coming back down to Lake Gunn the red mountainside caught my attention.
It was not vegetation (such as rata), but lichen growing on bare rock from avalanche debris.
These lichen are soft and squishy to the touch.
My final walk for the day was to the gantry viewpoint on the Lake Marion trail, accessed a couple of km down the Lower Hollyford road to Gunn’s Camp.
It was 20 minute climb to these rapids coming out of Lake Marion down to the Hollyford river. The 1½ hour climb to the Lake from this point was rocky and steep, and not for me.
So I retreated to the top end of Lake Gunn for lunch and a lazy relaxing afternoon, enjoying glimpses of sunshine as the cloud lifted south of the Hollyford divide.
Lake Gunn from the north end looking down to the outlet which borders the Cascade Creek campsites.
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