Andy AwayNews, Views and Photos from Andy's Travels

We had a fair bit of rain overnight (it was nioce to go to sleep to) but woke up to a glorious sunny, crisp morning.

Today is probably our longest planned drive – 290km according to Google – and pretty much spot on according to the odometer.  We had  a resaonably early start leaving at 7:30 and getting going pretty much straight away.  We had breakfast in a park by lake Waihola (about 30k south of Dunedin).. and received a very warm welcome from the local goose, who was very happy to share our breakfast.

The drive today was through more lowlands and flats initially, with mostly sheep, some cattle, but we also started to see quite alot of deer as we got closer to the mountains. Lots and lots more baby lambs today – which werer great fun to watch playing. There were quite a few dead ones too though :(.

On the mountains overlooking Riversdale there were a dozen massive wind turbines (Jamie thinks 100ft tall… and I think he is pretty close).

Stopped of for morning tea and a (pretty ordinary) hot choocolate in Gore before leaving the main southerly route and branching off to Te Anau.

Arrived in Te Anauu 12:00ish and checked in to Top 10… Now to decide what tour to book for tomorrow… It was always going to be between Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound… but after speaking to people in Dunedin I was leaning towards Doubtful.  As it happens, the road to Milford Sound looks like being closed for the next couple of days as the result of a landslip – so the decision was made for us… A bit more expensive than Milford, but Doubtful (named by Ca[ptain Cook in 1770) seems a bit less commercial and includes a tour of a hydro power station too.

We are too late to book onto the gloworm caves today… and will be back too late tomorrow, so looks like we will have to do that next time…

Lazy afternoon planded for the rest of the day… then maybe a nigfht out at the movies (there is a short local movie about Fiordland on) and a restaurant (maybe Indian) for dinner… Yum.