The road to Te Anau

We waved a fond farewell to Wanaka this morning one of our favourite places (there have been so many) on our trip. We were lucky with the weather but the town, though relatively small, has a really friendly atmosphere and is a good fun place.
So we set off south towards Queenstown. The route there was spectacular. We drove through an old town called Cardrona where intriguingly on a fence were a whole of ladies bras - very odd! The town itself is known more so for skiing not downhill but cross country. As ever in this country the views were spectacular and the road climbed to the highest sealed (tarmac) road in the country and we stopped to admire the view down towards Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, quite wonderful. I have consulted my Thesaurus and have run out of adjectives to describe the views and scenery here!
So we descended from on high taking on some very sharp hairpin bends and popped into Arrowtown. Arrowtown back in the day made its name from gold mining and is a popular tourist destination. The Main Street has retained its olde world look and if you wish to spend £300 on a merino and possum jumper this is the place to come!
On from Arrowtown we bypassed Queenstown as we shall be there on Thursday and drove on along Lake Wakatipu stopping for a sandwich at a very remote cafe but it was a very good sandwich.
Interesting listening to the radio they also have Bonfire night but fireworks can only be sold in NZ for the three days up to the night. Shame we don’t do similar. The radio is very intermittent and you have to keep changing stations and go fir long periods with no signal.
The weather today has been a bit overcast with drizzle at times and the road from Queenstown to Te Anau takes you through agricultural areas. There was very little traffic on the road but thousands of sheep in the fields.
We are now in Te Anau which is in the Fiordland National Park and at the foot of Lake Te Anau (there are a lot of lakes here) the second largest in the country. Te Anau is the setting off point for tours to Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound the latter we are doing tomorrow. The forecast is good for tomorrow so fingers crossed for as I write this it’s chucking it down!Read more