Kinloch & Glenorchy

After walking the 1st day of the Routeburn track we spent a second night at the Lake Sylvan DOC camp before tackling the gravel road again, this time heading to Kinloch which is across the lake from Glenorchy - a lovely little remote spot with picturesque views from the DOC camp right on the lakeside. We walked a little trodden track through the trees by the lake emerging onto the pebbly shores where we practised our stone skimming and Len dreamed of having a fishing rod before returning back along the road.

What an imagination!

The sandflies were terrible and aren't taking so much notice now of our dettol/babyoil mix. It's quite entertaining though watching other people through our windows constantly waving their arms and hands around their faces while trying to enjoy the constant sunshine. Unfortunately the little blighters have started to find ways through our flyscreens now - they're skinny before they come in and get all our blood after which time there's no way they could get out again!

However, one place we could escape them was in the water and we really enjoyed our swim, the water being so clear and warmer than we expected with it getting deep quite quickly. There are stones at the edge but this soon changes to the nice feel of sand and none of the weed that we have struck in other parts of the lake. The lake is the longest in NZ and it felt as though we were in an infinity pool with it being so calm - beautiful!

Only a landing strip on my pate for the sandflies

We stayed the night in the DOC camp and on Monday headed back to Glenorchy, stopping on the way to do the 1.5 hour return walk through the long grass along the edge of Diamond Creek to Lake Reid, where there were nice views of the mountains behind, passing about 4 fly fisherman on the way who were being reasonably successful. Len will definitely bring a rod next time we come South! It was very hot and exposed to the sun (we're used to walking through trees!) and we hadn't taken any water with us so we were pleased to get back to Debussy to rehydrate.

Lake Reid

Back at Glenorchy we played 2 rounds of golf on their short flat 9 hole course which gave us both our best scores for a while. It only took us just over 2.5 hours to play so that can tell you how short it was and also that there were no bunkers!

View towards Kinloch from 25ml Bay

After dumping our grey water and filling up with fresh water for $10 at the local camp ground we headed back down the lake for the night to the freeparking area at 25 mile creek where we stayed on our way up.
The sandflies are even worse here but Queenstown, where we are heading shortly, will be kinder!

Glenorchy & Routeburn

The low cloud around us on waking had lifted by the time we left our cosy lakeside spot on Friday morning to drive on to Glenorchy, not far up the road, and it was another brilliant sunny day. We walked around the lagoon loop track which we have done before - the lagoons with the reflections were pretty and there were ducks and black swans but we were again disappointed with the lack of birdsong in the trees.

Lake Sylvan

A brazen toe pecking robin!

Lake Sylvan and the start of the Routeburn track are about 27km further on from Glenorchy so that was our next destination though we very nearly turned around when we struck the gravel corrugated road. Talk about violent juddering and rattling although the road looked fine! We could go about 15kph only and I'm surprised we haven't found any broken articles yet. Once at the car park we did the flat 2 hour loop and old tramway track to the pretty lake Sylvan and were amazed by the Sth Island robins which kept trying to peck at Len's toes! We also saw quite a few riflemen before we walked a little further around the lake on the Rockburn track which unfortunately hasn't been maintained, with lots of fallen trees blocking parts of it, so we gave up on that extension and headed back to the carpark and adjacent DOC camp where we stayed for 2 nights which included last night.

Yesterday we drove a little further up the road to the Routeburn Track car park which already had a lot of vehicles parked in it before we set off walking at 10.00am in cloud and in beech trees initially but the sun came out again later in the morning. The walk starts in a bit of a basin with towering peaks around and there is a gradual easy climb up to the first hut at the Routeburn flats where the walk opens out onto a view of a vast brown tussocked flatland after following part of the Routeburn River with its huge boulders and rushing water. There were quite a lot of trampers going in both directions, some day-walkers like us, and some doing the whole track.

Lunch stop before ascent to the falls

We had lunch near the Flats Hut and then continued on to the steepest part of the whole track up to the Routeburn Falls where there is also a "hut" which is the nicest and biggest that we have yet seen. There is also a Lodge where guided walkers stay but from the outside they look similar. I was so impressed that the huts on the track have real flushing toilets! There is also a helicopter pad for dropping supplies for the guided walkers.

Resting by Routeburn Falls hut

We are so pleased that we made the effort to do the walk up to the falls as the views of the Humboldt Range were spectacular and you felt that you were right up in the mountain tops at a bit over 3500 feet although it was still another 500 feet or so to the highest point of the track. We knew we wouldn't have the energy to climb any higher though in just one day so after sitting for a while we began our descent to arrive back at the bus at 4.30 quite tired, but pleased to have completed over a quarter of this 10th ranked great walks of the world (twice!)

Queenstown

Tuesday morning we left the Golf Course and after a yummy savoury scone and a cup of coffee at the Kingston Railway Cafe we headed up the very pretty, scenic, eastern side of Lake Wakatipu to Frankton stopping on the way to LOOK at the golf course and lovely housing development at Jack's Point where it costs $190 a round, including a cart of course! Then we visited Kelvin Heights, where the Queenstown course is, and booked a tee time for the next day at $60 each a round which is still plenty dear enough for us!
We stayed for 2 nights in the Frankton Motor Camp right on the edge of the lake - it was another fantastically sunny hot day so after getting the washing into the machine we had a swim in the lake - not too cold at all as the water is quite shallow at Frankton so has been warmed by the sun.

The drive to Queenstown

The following morning we biked along the enjoyable, pictureseque lake-edge cycle track into Queenstown itself, about 7 km from the camp. This track is part of the newly developed 100km Queenstown cycle and walking trails and I would say is more than a rival for the Otago Rail Trail. It's nice to ride along seeing the blue lake on one side and the nice housing with lake views on the other. Lots of wandering tourists in the town and a little bit early for lunch when we left to bike back to the camp so we bought a take-home Bean Burrito and Smoked Chicken Roll from the Vudu Cafe which has won awards for being the top cafe in NZ. We have to say it was well deserved - their food is so delicious and stacked full of filling.

A "Remakable" chip about to be made!

After the yummy lunch it was time to play golf on the well-manicured rolling Kelvin Heights Course with the fastest greens we have played on since leaving home. They even trim up the edges of the greens with scissors and we encountered the scissor-girl on several of them so were eye witnesses.

Joe, Great Aunt Trish, Len & Amber

After golf it was a race to get back to camp and have a shower as we had been invited to my great-nephew, Joseph's, (my brother Rodger's grandson) for dinner and we were keen to meet both his partner, Amber, and their very cute 10 month old son Hunter before his bedtime. What a lovely little family they are and we had a fantastic night with them and their friend Joel from Hawkes Bay -such a lot of laughs, good conversation and a lovely barbecue. They have great views of the lake and live very close to the camp so we were able to walk there and back which was a good thing after a few enjoyable wines.

Frankton Primary

This morning we biked, in the opposite direction from Queenstown, around the Kelvin Heights Peninsula, another very scenic ride which went past Frankton Primary, the most beautiful school we have ever seen in the most spectacular setting, before heading towards Glenorchy at the northern end of the lake, a drive of about 44 km from Queenstown.
We have stopped for the night about halfway up at a lovely spot, sheltered from the wind, right by the lake and 25 mile creek. We have amazing, beautiful views of the lake looking down towards Glenorchy and there are a couple of other vans here behind the trees.

Riversdale to Kingston

Next stop was Kingston, at the Southern end of Lake Wakatipu, and known for being the home of the Kingston Flyer steam train.

All aboard?!

Our place!

We parked up at the golf club, not far from the beautiful blue lake with towering hills behind - nobody playing golf or working on the course so we just hoped it would be OK to stay though we do feel a bit guilty doing this. However we were able to check with the mowerman while playing the next day and he was quite happy which meant we stayed last night too! I think that we wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere afterwards anyway as we ended up playing 4 rounds making 36 holes as you could play all day for the one fee of $15 each which we thought was a little dear for the state of the course but we ended up getting our money's worth!

Splosh putt!

Only one other person was on the course all day but it was a dog-show and a wet-n-wild theme park, being the place where everyone walks their dogs without carrying plastic bags and also a very basic green watering system where just one little stream of water pours onto one spot and creates huge puddles making the greens impossible with a mixture of total wetness or total dryness to putt through.

Ewe've gotta be kidding!

 Also curls of hose to skip over coming on to the green. A couple of stray sheep joined us too but all in all we had a bit of fun despite dehydrating fast in the very hot sunshine by the end of the day.

Gore to Riversdale

We had a very noisy night parked in the Gore RSA carpark on Thursday night - trains, trucks and cars seemingly all night long so little sleep was had. We were pleased when the greenkeeper at the Gore Golf Club, where we played on Friday, asked if we would like to stay the night in the club carpark and told us how to connect into their power. The southerners have all lived up to their reputation of being so friendly and hospitable. We have lots of nice memories of people we have met.

Moonshine start/finish

The Gore Course is 18 holes and interesting, being a bit more challenging than most of the 9 holers we have played on (apart from Dipton!) Again they are worried about the decreasing membership of the club with the oldies dying off and not many young ones joining up. We had a little light rain, when we played, which soon cleared away and it was nice to be able to have a shower in the ladies instead of the mens before we went to the movies afterwards - 1st movie for about 6 months! We saw The Quartet which we both enjoyed and later it was lovely to have a peaceful, quiet night sleeping in the rural golf club car park! We could easily have stayed longer in Gore as we really enjoyed the town and the people but Saturday we drove out to Dolamore Park / Croydon where there are some good walks.

Popplewells Lookout

We were expecting it to be pretty quiet so were surprised to be caught up with hundreds of people, cars and bikes when we arrived at the carpark. It was the annual Moonshine event for cyclists, runners and walkers so we had to hold back a bit before we set off so we didn't impede anyone's progress! We did the 90 minute Whisky Creek circuit as well as the rather muddy climb up to Popplewell's Lookout which gave us a good view of the surrounding countryside.

A plonker planking at Popplewells

Next stop was the Golf Club in tiny Riversdale where the dozen or so Saturday players were just finishing their competition round and invited us to join them for a drink in the clubrooms which of course we did. Only 2 ladies playing and Deb, a teacher aid who lives in a house adjoining the back of the course, was especially welcoming.

Riversdale GC ingenuity on mens urinal!

We had another quiet night in the carpark there being woken by some different birdsong in the morning. We enjoyed the return of good sunshine while playing golf, having the course all to ourselves, although we were able to stop for a chat with Deb who was in her garden by the 9th tee on the way round.

The Southern Golf Circuit!

Len has found a lot of country golf courses on the circuit route that we are doing from Lumsden before we head up to Queenstown and we have played golf every day this week! Sunday was at Te Anau and Monday at Lumsden where our last blog ended.
Tuesday we played at Dipton, a 9 hole very hilly, slanted course which we both found very tiring especially by the time we had played 18 holes. It was quite well maintained however, all by volunteers, (as with a lot of the nine hole courses) and they have a fairly new club house. Tuesday was their Ladies Day and there were only 6 ladies playing but they all stopped for a chat when our fairways came close together.
That afternoon the weather deteriorated and it was raining steadily as we headed for Winton and the golf course there which has a small official camp site in the parking area with electricity, water, shower & toilets and a washing machine available, all for the charge of $15 a night. There was already a caravan parked and another motorhome with a couple from Nelson who were on the road for 3 months.
Wednesday is their Ladies Day which starts at 10.00am so we were up early to tee off just before 8.15 so we could be on the 10th tee before they started, which we managed to do. The rain was constant and the wind blew the new umbrella which I won at Tuatapere inside out. Then as we were teeing off on about the 17th the wind blew our trundlers over and Lens umbrella went flying right over the creek behind getting caught on the far bank just before the road. He had to run along the creek for over a 100 metres before there was a place to cross so he could retrieve it which luckily he was able to do before it flew into the windscreen of a passing car.
On the way back he found that Norma, who we played golf with at the Tuatapere tournament, was in the group of ladies behind us so we were able to have a good chat afterwards.

Worst house in the worst street!

Later on that afternoon we moved on to the little depressed town of Mataura which has had a lot of job losses recently with the closing down of the sheep division of the freezing works. It has an extremely wide main road and lots of houses on it that seem quite derelict - there are some nicely looked after ones over the river but we thought the whole town had rather a sad feel about it. We parked in the RSA carpark beside the river, as they welcome overnight motorhomers, and felt better about the people and the town after joining a few locals for a drink in the Club. They were very friendly and chatty and the welcoming barmaid, Tina, insisted on giving us a dozen farm eggs when we left!

Whoops - there it goes again!

Today we played at the Mataura Course, in the rain again and with wind gusts up to 70kmph - again the umbrella blew inside out but it is still usable. The Mataura and Winton courses are apparently the hardest courses in Southland although we liked their flatness. If you think that our handicaps are improving with all this golf you would be wrong! We both went quite a way out, partly because you don't know where the hazards are on the different courses and the greens are all so different. Len has started to reduce his handicap again whereas I'm a little slower to recover but I have to say that I am hitting the ball much better so surely I will see some improvement soon. I did have a good game today considering the conditions!

Pretty, aren't they?

Tonight we are parked at the RSA in Gore and will play our 6th consecutive game tomorrow. Gore is a nice town and we had a little wander round before dinner especially to look at some of the older buildings.

Te Anau to Lumsden

Surprised by a Rimu!

We walked the easy first part of the Kepler Track alongside Lake Te Anau through yet another Beech forest (I think we must be ready to tackle something a bit more diverse!) to Brod Bay where there is a little tent site and loads of attacking sandflies. So we had a very hasty lunch and returned to the carpark at the control gates.

No Poms allowed then?!

 When we came down a few years ago we walked the other end of the Kepler so now we just have the hard middle part to do with all the great views!

Dock Bay Te Anau

Afterwards we settled ourselves at Freds country POP which was just down the road from the carpark and golf course on Golf Course Rd and which already had 2 other buses parked up. Very handy for the next morning (Sunday) when we played on the Te Anau course overlooking the lake - nice course but the fairways were quite dry despite the sprinklers and all the rain they have in Fiordland. A lot of the rain must just go around the mountains.
In the afternoon we popped back into town to watch the Ata Whenua film on Fiordland - 32 minutes of amazing footage taken from a helicopter and with music on surround sound. Then it was a quick walk to the 'Miles Better Pies' shop as we had been told that the pies really are good and we understand that the baker's name actually is Miles Better! It was true about the pies - Len had a Wild Venison one and I chose Lamb and Mint and they were both delicious - packed full with nice tender meat and with light pastry that you hardly noticed. So if you're visiting Te Anau a Miles Better Pie is a must!
Being ready to move on from Te Anau we drove on to another farm POP just outside Mossburn which is a tiny little village where the road turns off to Queenstown.
We parked in front of the haybarn with another 2 buses and had the pleasant sound of rain throughout the night. It continued until about 11.00am by which time we were nearly ready to tee off at the fairly quiet flat Lumsden Course. We enjoyed the round which was made more interesting by having different tee off spots for the 2nd nine holes. It started to rain again on the 17th but we managed to finish just before it got too heavy which was good as wet clubs in the boot are not the best. The other 3 lots of people playing have all gone now and we plan to stay the night although there has been no committee member about yet that we can ask permission from. Not even the tractor man is working today.

Lake Manapouri, Te Anau & Milford Sound

Lake manapouri

From Lake Hauroko we drove through to Te Anau stopping at Lake Manapouri enroute to admire the beauty of the lake in the continuing bright sunshine and have a walk along a bushy track on the lake edge from Pearl Harbour to Frasers Beach. There were lots of parked vehicles about but hardly a soul to be seen as they were probably all out on the Doubtful Sound cruise which we really enjoyed last time we were here.
On arriving in Te Anau we booked a bus and boat trip to Milford Sound for the next morning (Friday) with Jucy who had, just that morning, put out a special deal of half price for the second person which made it only $178 for both of us and included a small lunch and tea and coffee. Jucy, who combine with Eco Tours, has small buses (same size as ours, seating 20) and a small boat which we were all happy with as it somehow makes the trip more friendly and the boat can nudge in closer to the waterfalls (wet passengers!) and seals. The bus driver gave us good information and we stopped at lots of good scenic spots such as the Mirror Lakes, the Chasm, the river we spotted trout in and Lake Gunn on the way up and back - 2.5 hours of driving each way and Len was very pleased to have a day off on the windy road which was so busy with tourists and buses.

T with lunch! (Mitre Peak behind)

The scenery of course is awesome with the towering ice-capped peaks, silver, red and mountain beech trees and underlying ferns.

No, it's not upside down!

It was great to actually see Mitre Peak, across the lake, in reality instead of just in a picture. Compared with our memories of Doubtful Sound we were a little disappointed with Milford which may be partly to do with the time of the year. With it now being February and relatively dry over the last couple of weeks there wasn't the cascading water that you would normally see all through the Sounds after rain although there are 3 permanent waterfalls in Milford. And it was yet another sunny day for us - we almost felt it would be good to see it in the rain! We visited Doubtful Sound about 10 years ago in November and also recall seeing a lot more marine and birdlife there. Milford Sound had a good number of basking fur seals which we were able to get really close up to but that was all yesterday.

Which is the wight way in Te Anau?

I think we have already been spoilt by what we have seen around the Southern Coast and on Stewart Island. However we really enjoyed the day and it is nice to now know what all the tourists are seeing.
We have stayed for 2 nights in the Te Anau Kiwi Holiday Park right in town as there are few free camping areas close in - lots of good DOC sites on the road up to Milford though.
Te Anau is a pretty place and on Thursday evening we walked along the lakeside path to the promoted Wildlife Park which we thought was pretty disappointing. It is home for some native birds and, again, we just feel so sad for these few caged creatures who seem to lose a lot of their beauty in their confinement being unable to really spread their wings. Stewart and Ulva Island are the best places to see them!
Today, Saturday, we are going to do a return walk on the first section of the Kepler Track. It's cloudy and windy at the moment and we need to start moving!

Tuatapere to Lake Hauroko

Waitangi Day we played in the Tuatapere Opening Day Golf tournament as planned - the midday start turned into a 12.45 start Tuatapere-time and as it was a 4 ball better ball competition. Len and I played as a team with Norma who used to live at Tuatapere but is now retired to Winton, and Paul, a Maths teacher at the local school, who kept reminding me of my son David! Norma's husband, Don, accompanied us and provided very good caddy services for both her and me. Len and I started off really well but then I had a bit of a nonconcentrating bad patch which didn't help the scoring but we were very happy not to be in the top of the field and have to take home a patio heater or other large item! There were 64 entrants and as everyone got a prize we were very happy with the new golf shirt and golf towel for Len and a new umbrella for me. There was a barbecue and salad for dinner included so it was all very good value at $20 each entry fee. The locals were all very friendly and chatty and made us feel very much at home. It was great just being able to wander back to the bus afterwards and not have to drive home but I'm still stunned that we spent 3 nights in Tuatapere!

Voila!

Just down the road from the Golf club is the historic Clifden Suspension Bridge which opened in 1899 and is having some restoration work done on it at present, although no longer in use. So this was our first stop on Thursday before we detoured from the scenic route to travel 32 km down a predominantly gravel road, against the flow of logging trucks, to Lake Hauroko, the deepest lake in NZ at 462 metres deep. We had been of 2 minds whether to go or not as everyone had already told us that there really wasn't anything to see when we got there apart from it being the starting point for the Hump Ridge Track and also the starting point for the longest jet boat ride you can do, at about 6 hours, over the lake and down the river to the sea.

Jetty & Jet boat
However we are pleased that we did go as it was a crisp, sunny morning and the lake was beautiful, peaceful and still. There were a couple of jetboats about to leave with passengers but nothing else (apart from the monster sandflies!) We did a lovely little 30 minute walk along a circle path which told us that the lake had recently been much higher with all the washed up wood at the "high tide" mark. It was a little boggy in parts but the stillness and ethereal feeling was amazing, the silence only being broken by birdsong. I love all the lattice-like lichen that festoons down from the trees.

Festooning lichen

Boo!

Southern Scenic Route Part 2

p.s. it's not me!

It was cloudy and rather bleak when we drove past the statue of a surfer on a wave at the entrance to Colac Bay which has a large sandy beach and is a very popular surfing spot so we didn't actually stop and instead have downloaded a picture from the internet of the statue which is cheating but it will help us remember the Bay!

Monkeying around at Monkey Island!

We stopped instead at Monkey Island, Orepuki, where there is a free overnight parking area for motorhomes right beside the beach, there being about 6 other campers already there. Monkey Island is tiny and is accessible at low tide. The sign explained that it was named because supplies for the local village which doesn't really exist anymore were brought in by boat to the Island at high tide and they used a monkey winch for doing this. Some clown had of course deleted the word 'winch' so it reads as though the monkey did all the work!

Wot - no ropes?!

It rained during the night but eased temporarily in the morning so we could have a good walk along the beach, a rockclimb on sandstone cliffs, and a fossick at Gemstone Bay for semi precious stones such as garnets, jasper, quartz and nephrite. Apparently there is a constant change on the beach from sand to stones dependent on how much water has been coming down the Waiau river and little stream. On the surface we didn't think there were that many stones visible but certainly you could find lots if you dug down - nothing so special that we wanted to weigh our bus down with though!

After the fossick we headed on to Tuatapere, another depressed town with a population of about 580 and lots of houses for sale. The rain was really coming down by this time and the temperature was freezing at only 8° - quite a difference from the 26° we just had at Invercargill. We stopped for the night in the local Holiday Park and were pleased to get some washing and drying done, get our communication systems charged up and put the heater on.
Tuatapere calls itself World Famous for its sausages so we did quite a walk down the road to the local "butchers" to help support the town by having sausages for dinner. The entire selection of sausages consisted of 3 packets of plain beef ones and 1 packet
of bacon & cheese and most of the articles on sale were grocery items or fruit and veges. There were more lettuces than sausages!! So we snapped up the packet of bacon and cheese ones and duly cooked them up for dinner. Following this exercise I would advise anyone who is thinking of buying World Famous Tuatapere sausages when they pass through to keep on driving!
This morning we left the 'town' for the Tuatapere golf course which is about 11 km out, on the road to Te Anau where we are gradually heading. We had a game on their quiet, flat valley course in a mixture of sunshine, cloud and increasing wind with some overnight snow visible on the mountaintops to the north. It was a nice course to play with its wide fairways, nice copses of trees and better greens than we have experienced for a while. With the tractor mowerman telling us that we should stay the night and join in on their Waitangi Day golf competition at midday tomorrow we have decided to follow his suggestion and do just that. We probably need to do some socialising with other people before we forget how!

Southern Scenic Route Part 1

Riverton Golf Club was our stop for the night after leaving Invercargill on Saturday and we played the following day pleased that the threatening rain was holding off. It is a sheltered links course which we quite enjoyed playing on despite the rough, patchworked greens and no view of the adjacent sea. One has the feeling that there is not much money to spend on the clubhouse and probably not many members although membership is cheap at only $85 for a new member, a little more for subsequent years.
The amenities are rather sad but the men's side did have a shower so I, once again, made myself an honorary man once there was no sign of life around the clubhouse.
Sunday we had a wander through the town which is also rather sad with the historic buildings now housing a mishmash of arty- crafty shops and other assorted things.

Got to be a good buy!

Len was very taken with the old Masonic Lodge building in the main street which is on the market for $75,000 and, seeing an Open sign outside, thought that it was on Open Home for viewing when they were actually referring to the gallery inside which just consisted of one room. With a bit of cheekiness, he managed to see quite a bit of the property and I have to say that the girl sitting in a little office area was hardly perturbed! Anyway, the building has a beautiful facade but needs lots of work behind the scenes, thank goodness.
With a population of about 1900 and being the oldest European settlement in the South Island Riverton is no longer thriving and work must be hard to come by. Despite this they have recently spent a lot of money trying to build a focus point in the town which consists of an elaborate viewing platform overlooking the river at the end of steps and a long ramp. The ramp ended about 18 inches below the viewing platform so they had spent even more money providing an electrically operated lift so wheelchairs could make it the whole 18 inches higher to be level with the small viewing area. Poorly designed and I hate to think how much all this must have cost the local community.
The fairly new museum close by could have been worth a visit but we have been to a few of these now, the last one being on Stewart Island, so we opted out of that.

Riverton Rocks!

We felt more heartened when we drove around the peninsula to Taramea Bay at the end of Riverton Rocks Road. There is nicer housing in this area as well as safe swimming, surfing, good walks and great views on a clear day out to Stewart Island and over to Invercargill and Bluff.

Invercargill before and after Stewart Island

I was so busy writing about Stewart Island that I didn't include anything about Invercargill before we went. On the Sunday we drove from Fortrose straight to the Isite in Invercargill where the very helpful lady had accommodation and return ferry tickets, leaving the next day, booked for us in no time. One night at the South Seas Hotel on the waterfront and then 3 nights in a quaint self-contained sleepout, with water views, just up the hill.
Then we popped down to the fruit and vege market at the College and had a wander through the city before settling into the Central City camp ground, a nice little spot with new owners - very clean and an easy walk into town where we had a very hot and spicy curry at Little India - nice restaurant and the waiter was very attentive bringing us raiita when he knew our mouths were on fire. Medium and med/hot are usually fine for us but not this time even though we still really enjoyed it. The restaurant has a couple of customers on Stewart Island whom they deliver to by air occasionally!
We drove to Bluff the next morning in plenty of time for the 9.30 ferry to the Island and parked the bus in the secure parking area down by the wharf.

When we arrived back later on Friday it was nice to see that it was still secure however. We decided to park in town at the Workingmens Club which is one of the free parks in our NZMCA book. However when we got there we found that there was a wedding on so their were no spare parks although there was already one motorhome settled in. So we joined another one on the roadside of the busy street which was very noisy until about midnight at which time we could start to get some sleep. The worst problem for us was that our house battery died even though there has been lots of sun to charge it through the solar panel. This meant that firstly there was no TV, then the water pump wouldn't work and then the lights failed. Thank goodness for my big plastic water bottle and my headlamp!
So Saturday morning saw us off on a battery chase and it was 3rd time lucky with AJ's having one of the exact battery that we needed. We were pleased that we were in Invercargill when it failed and not out in the sticks.
After I had a much needed haircut we spent the rest of sunny, hot Saturday biking around the city, lagoon, down the river and through Queens Gardens where we felt sorry for the two frail imprisoned Kaka in the aviary after seeing all the strong healthy ones on Stewart Island.

On leaving the city for Riverton we popped in to see Carlene's brother and sister in the lovely house that her Mum and Stepdad own just on the outskirts of the city. It was really nice to catch up with them both and they coped with the surprise visit very well!

Stewart Island Part 2

They have a short 45 minute film showing several times a day in their nice little theatre and this was worth a view with quite a bit of humour in it. It's called "A Local Tail" and is about the history and people of Stewart Island told through the eyes of a dog.

South Sea Hotel with chess set made from traffic cones!

When we first arrived we went on the Village and Bay bus Tour which was great for familiarising ourselves quickly with the area and gleaning info from the local bus driver. The Paterson Inlet Cruise and guided walk on Ulva Island was also worthwhile with us seeing lots of hidden coves as well as little blue penguins and Buller Albatross out at sea. The birds on the island included Tui of course, Stewart Island Robin, Bellbirds, Parakeets, Wood Pidgeons, just the footprints of kiwi and weka, and lots of Kaka which we have also seen flying from the trees to the roof of our little self contained sleepout called Room With a View where we have spent 3 nights.

It's really handy to the "town" which is really just the Pub (South Sea Hotel) and the 4 Square but the Pub is definitely the Hub of Stewart Island and very important for the locals as well as the visitors as its where everyone meets up. We're really pleased we stayed in the Hotel on our first night - old, clean and comfortable. We were in a double room with shared facilities down the passage but we seemed to be the only ones using them. The shared comfortable, homely lounge, tea and coffee making facilities and huge balcony with great views over the Bay were just perfect and I don't think we felt that just because we have been living in a bus!

View of Halfmoon Bay from hotel balcony

We gather that the Pub is often very noisy and , although we didn't need to use them, we were provided with earplugs by the bed instead of biscuits or chocolates!
The Pub had great meals and not expensive as you might expect. The night we arrived they had whole crayfish on the menu with rice and salad for only $35 so we couldn't resist that! Cheap because they were rejects from the export shipment to China but delicious.

The Cray twins!

We have totally loved this place where there has been only one downside and that is the voracious sandflies which are especially bad down in Halfmoon Bay on the waterfront. We'll never try and eat blue cod and chips there again! I have to say though that despite being covered in red bites we are not actually itchy which is quite strange.

Stewart Island Part 1

Photo taken by a US production crew member filming Ocean Mysteries for ABC

Stewart Island for 5 days has been a real highlight with neither of us having been here before. An unspoilt place with clear, clean waters, lush rainforest, beautiful beaches and friendly trusting locals with simple lifestyles.
Despite a land area of 1,570 sq kilometres it only has a permanent population of 400 all of whom live in just a tiny part of the Island at Halfmoon Bay or close by. The only roading is in this area but all the roads seem to lead on to great walking tracks. With about 24 primary school children they have the luxury of 3 teachers and a free medical service provided by 2 District Nurses which probably helps with paying their electricity costs which are 4 times that on the mainland. The locals all leave their keys in their cars with the windows open and never lock their doors. I remember Tauranga being a bit like that about 45 years ago!

Still young at heart!

The weather has been sunny and warm to hot the whole time we have been here which has meant that this is an unusually good summer for them. We have enjoyed doing nearly all of the 9 local bush and beach walks which take from about 30 minutes up to about 4 hours each - perfect. To do much more than that we would need to do the hut or water taxi thing.

Ringaringa Heights 5th (11th&17th) tee!

 We have also played 18 holes of golf on the 6 hole golf course, one hole apparently being called "Heart Attack Hill", but we 're not sure which one as there were two like that. All the holes were 3 or 4 pars but with lots of surrounding bush and dirty deep ditches we lost all the 4 balls that we were given. After lots of searching we luckily found 2 more that we could continue on with. Not expensive to play with green fees of $5 each and $5 for club hire but, not unexpectedly, the greens were like an unmowed Mount back lawn. All good fun!
Yesterday ( Thursday) we had a swim at Bathing Beach which is just down the hill from us - rather cold at 14° they say but the tide was coming in and it seemed warmer than that close to the shore. Not that we stayed in long! We lay on the beach for a while before being driven home by the sandflies.