The weather
gods treated us with sunny 20-25 °C today and it looks like our entire stay in
Te Anau will remain that way, so we were very upbeat about this development.
Yesterday, an overcast sky was in the forecast with a bit of drizzle. Lucky
us... I will give my sacrifices to the ancient Maori gods tonight in form of
eating grinded pig meat inside the membrane of pig intestine cast into a heated
oily substance that may approach the temperatures of death and destruction,
accompanied with potatoes thrown into a similar oily inferno. I hope they will
be pleased and acknowledge my giving thanks to their generous gift of good
weather for our journey.
For our
first day in Te Anau we wanted to take it easy as there will be two big trips
the following days. So we decided to do a little walk starting from the Rainbow
Reach (the name really took our fancy) going towards Lake Manapouri, a slightly
smaller lake just south of Lake Te Anau (which is massive indeed).
I gotta
say, though, we are getting spoilt by amazing scenery at the moment. We try to
appreciate it as if it is the first time we see something like this, but
wherever we go, the landscape is just bonkers beautiful. The very short one
hour walk was prolonged by our constant taking of photos. Today, for the first
time, our newly acquired gorilla pod was put into action (thanks Marian for the
suggestion. It is an invaluable tool) so that we could take pictures with both
of us in it without the need for a stranger who happened to stroll past.
On our way,
we crossed the Waiau River twice over rather shaky suspension bridges.
Apparently, somewhere near the places we passed, parts of the Lord of the Rings
were filmed. A fact that should have made a true film fan watch all three films
again just to see which parts were in it... I guess I am not "that"
big a fan...
The trips
destination, Lake Manapouri, was awesome in its own right. I am running out of
words to describe pretty landscape here unfortunately. So just look below and
see for yourselves. We tried to take the opportunity and show off how sporty we
are by doing cart wheels on the shores of the lake. We are "very"
sporty indeed... I think I pulled a muscle in my calves, though. Then we had a
picnic to show how good we can eat things. We are "awesome" at eating
things :) ... By the way, I am also awesome at squashing bananas inside a rucksack
full with stuff just using a gorilla pod :( Stern and disapproving looks by the
wife followed by a hefty scolding ensued :(.
Now we are
sitting in the sun on our terrace having a beer while I write this blog. To
prove it, we used our gorilla pod and camera again (See how useful that thing
is!!!) :) Tomorrow, we are off to the Milford Sound doing a ship cruise, some
kayaking, followed by looking at an underground sea world centre thing. You
will hear all about it tomorrow :) Take care and see you around ;)
A suspension bridge near the Rainbow Reach
One of the many beautiful views during that walk
This is a New Zealand Robin that hops after hikers to eat the sandworms that were shook loose by the people
A rather large pond without connection to any river on our route
Sporty Spice
Elegance in all its facets
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