Mostly a travel day today. As we are a little behind in our planned schedule, we have decided to abandon the idea of travelling to Te Anau via Invercargill and instead head straight across to Te Anau catching up on our lost day (created by having a longer wait than expected to pick up the van and spending more time at the Antarctic centre then planned).
After a breakfast of bacon and eggs in the camper and a drive back along the very pretty Otago Harbour, followed by some grocery shopping at Countdown, we headed south along Route 1 to Balclutha. The bay was very different this morning at low tide compared to high tide yesterday, where the water was almost lapping the road.
From Balclutha we headed west (still on route 1) to Gore, where we had lunch in the Gore Gardens. The roses were just amazing.
Here we left Route 1 and continued further north-west to Lumsden and then on to Te Anau. The countryside today has been predominately farming. Lots of irrigation, lots of sheep, and quite a few deer. At one point we passed a number of wind generators up on the hill.
We stopped briefly at Te Anau, a very obvious tourist town (cost $1 to use the toilet) and continued on to a Department of Conservation campsite at Henry Creek about 20 minutes north of Te Anau. What a lovely spot. Right on Lake Te Anau. We had nibbles and drinks on the "beach" covered in pebbles looking across the lake at the mountains. Aylee and Nate enjoyed themselves burying each other in pebbles. “My sort of beach”, Aylee says, "no sand””. (Jill said that for me, I didn’t say anything – Aylee)
After a beautiful sunset, we retired to the camper for a pasta dinner, a game of rummy and then off to bed.
