Te Anau

December 2006

Dec. 4: Drive from QTown to Te Anau: mostly boring farm land. But some spectacular mountain views in the distance. A bit over 2 hours.

Stayed in the Bella Vista Motel. A bit of a let down after the Oaks Shores. New and clean, but very simple.

Two local residents ...

Te Anau is a sleepy town of about 4,000. Almost everybody seems to work in tourism. A picture from the local video store.

Local version of a motel.

The streets are wide enough to accommodate centuries of future urban growth.

The marina.

As everywhere in NZ, the summer is rather fresh. Winter clothing is highly advisable.

An oddity: somebody apparently abandoned a ship repair wharf, including the last ship being repaired.

Dec. 5: First excursion (before brekkie): a half-hour movie with helicopter footage of the area. Quite impressive. Then a last minute booking for a helicopter tour at 11am. With major hesitation by Margarita. The helicopter arrives.

The helicopter is "cozy" and feels a bit like an older car.

Absolutely spectacular views from the helicopter.

First landing in a remote valley.

Second landing on top of the world.

With the pilot. He has many years of flying experience in 23 countries. For some years he flew helicopters around Te Anau to catch deer. The method: Fly over the deer (on top of the mountains), so that the co-pilot can jump out and grab the deer.

Snow in the summer...

Another view from the top.

Then on over the top of the mountains.

Back to Te Anau.

Afternoon: We took the boat to the Glow worm caves.

Great scenery crossing the lake. The caves themselves were impressive, too. But the glow worm cave itself was a bit of a letdown. One is rowed into an entirely dark cave, where only the glow worms are visible. The cave itself is totally in the dark.

Next day: On to Milford Sound...