Sadly it was time to leave Te Anau this morning. we have been here four days and got to know the town well. With trips to Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound and a drive to the south coast, we have made
The Maori name for Milford Sound is Piopiotahi. This seems a distinct improvement on the original name which was given by Captain John Grono who discovered it in 1812. He named it Milford Haven after his homeland in Wales. This
The forecast today was not a classic one – once again it was one of the 200 rain days they get down here, so we decided to go for a drive. On the recommendation of the B&B hosts, we took
Fiordland is by far the largest of New Zealand’s fourteen national parks at 4,868 square miles. It is also by far the most inaccessible. It occupies the whole south western corner of New Zealand and there is just one main
Today we went to see fungus gnats. This may not, on the face of it sound like a scintillating day, but … if I described them as glowworms, then it might sound more appealing. Actually glowworms are the larval stage
Te Anau is our next destination and is often considered the walking capital of New Zealand. Many of the iconic walking tracks – the Kepler Track, the Milford Track and the Routeburn Track. However, given that these take anything between
Our route is taking us inexorably south but to get to Fiordland in the south we have to head southeast for a while as there is a range of mountains in the way. Our next stop is therefore Wanaka –
We left Ross first thing carrying on our trek south. Our route takes us along the coast past the New Zealand Southern Alps. These run in a northeast to southwesterly direction for most of the length of South Island –
Our stop for tonight was Ross – an old mining town. The current population of Ross is apparently around 300 people and a signifcant proportion of them seemed to be in the Empire Hotel this evening – the only pub
We headed today from Nelson to our next stop – Greymouth. Rather than following the main road, we decided to take the coast road towards Westport and then south from there to Greymouth. The main idea was to be able