Jaypatrol

We now move on to Lake Manapouri, (even seeing another statue, this time of a Romney Sheep).
We pass the river flood plain near Lumsden, viewing moutains in the distance all the way. We arrive at Lake Manapouri and take more photos for the album. This is a huge lake and there was an awesome mist hanging over it.
We finally arrive at Te Anau. There is yet another statue on the lakeside. This time, it is facing toward Milford Sound. I can’t remember who it is.

There is a huge statue of a Takahe on the corner of the main road. He is very colourful. We then get to wander around and sightsee.
We then board the coach for our journey to Te Anau, our nights accommodation.

This is set in the Fiordland National Park and where the hotel gets its name from. This is also where Grumpies Backpackers is. There we caught up on the laundry. This is the only place we have ever stayed at that they have supplied washing powder for the machines. The rooms were set out in bungalow style, but quite cosy. There is a lot of “Broom” the noxious weed, here and in the surrounding country side. Lake Te Anau gave Arthur lots of photographic material as well. Helen, Toula and I had some fun in the laundry whilst waiting for the washing machines to finish.

Early the next morning, we leave for Milford Sound. The weather didn’t look promising. We stopped off at the Ranger Station, at Hollyford, which is an information station to read all about the area. As we get back on the bus, it begins to rain. We arrive at the Homer Tunnel, where we have to wait for the lights for our turn to enter the tunnel. There was a wall of waterfalls here and also ice on the edge of the road. Time for more photos.

We enter the tunnel and there is a 3000 foot descent to the other side. When we exited the tunnel there was another wall of waterfalls and the rain was getting heavier. This was where we saw waterfalls beginning to form.

We stopped of a little further down for a walk through a rain forest area in the Claddau Canyon area, ( the rain had eased a little). Here there is a deep narrow gorge were the river water noisily rushes through. There the trees were covered in moss as it is so damp naturally. It was such an awesome place. But as the rain was getting heavier again, we had to quickly move on. We finally arrived at the port to board the boat for our cruise on Milford Sound.