There is nothing to say about the Southern Scenic Route except take it. We manage to turn the two-hour trip from Invercargill to Te Anau into four, and we don’t see everything we could stop and see. The same can be said for the trip from Dunedin to Invercargill.
We stop first at Riverton and find the beach which is littered with green pebbles. Next is Colac Bay, which is a long, horse-shoe shaped beach where surfers must go wild with the choice of waves to ride. A little further is Cosy Nook, a tiny bay with three or four tiny houses (shacks) hugging the shore and both edges rocky outcroppings. Accidentally, Peter turns to a lookout and we discover it is Gemstone Beach. Someone has left samples on the sign post between the car park and the beach. As I walk down the beach, two friendly dogs come to greet me. We figure they belong to the guy who has left his car and quad-trailer parked by the beach and who is off finding gems because he knows what he is looking for. I pick-up a few pebbles from each beach just because I do things like that. I hope Trevor will let me use his rock tumbler and maybe we will get some nice results.
As we turn north, the wide valley of the Waiau River opens up. There are thousands of sheep between here and where the mountains begin past Manapouri. The whole S.S. area is excellent sheep raising country.
We stop to buy some sausages at Tuatapere that are advertised the “Best sausages in New Zealand”. They have been made with beef and mutton of a secret recipe for over fifty years. We buy some cooked ones from the 4 Square store next to the butchery. We stop at a picnic area a little farther along and enjoy the sausages, nice texture but not spicy, for lunch. Again, we are surprised to be parked next to a suspension bridge, now closed as unsafe, built to replace a ferry in the early 20th century, like the Brilliant bridge. The river it crosses is not as wild as the Kootenay! Stumbling across little gems in new Zealand is much of the fun of travelling this diamond of a country.
Soon Fiordland is in view. We get our first glimpse of Lake Manapouri at the little town of the same name. There is a rock to mark the height to which the lake would have risen if a proposed hydro dam had been built. This is a monument to those who fought the government and saved the lake as it is. The tributes end with a saying by Thoreau: In wilderness is the preservation of the world. Finally, we reach Te Anau, a little tourist town like Jasper (not as big as Banff) where the Doubtful and Milford Sound visitors stay. The upside is that it is a pretty little place, the downside is we have paid way too much for our accommodations as there are lots of empty rooms!
We have been warned that nothing will be open on Christmas day - when we will be traveling to Queenstown, so we do some grocery shopping in hopes to be self-sufficient. Tomorrow we drive the two hours to Milford sound and take a two-hour cruise. The weather is to be rainy - so what is new. Last week the road was closed because they had a “slip” which took a few hours to clear. With up to 100 cm. of rain expected overnight, we will just keep our fingers crossed.
Public toilets in Tuatapere.
Suspension bridge near Tuatapere.One-lane bridge. We must Give way as we have the red arrow.
First snow we see on the Southern Alps.
No comments:
Post a Comment