Life . . . Reframed: Gemstone Beach, Te Anau and Milford Sound

Gemstone Beach near Orepuki - west coast

Time to leave the south end of the south island, and start heading northward. The weather has been cooler down here and I'm ready to get back to sunshine. My cool-weather clothing wardrobe is very limited!

It's not a long drive today, so we decided to stop at a place called Gemstone beach at Waihoaka and have a look around. There was a young hippie-ish couple camped there in a van and we got chatting with them. They scour the beach for gemstones and sell them - they were very interesting to talk to and showed us some of the stones they had found and told us what they were. I would have liked to talk to them longer, but they both had filthy teeth that I found unpleasant to look at when they smiled (which was all the time) I wanted to give them both a toothbrush! They did give us a bit of a an interest in looking for rocks though. It didn't seem appropriate to take their pictures. More on the new rock obsession later. . .

It looks sandy, but there are a lot of unpolished small stones
and semi-precious gems on this bit of coastline

A bit hard to see, but there's an old squatter's shack built
into the hillside here. Interesting rock formation on the cliff.

We stopped at another beach called Tewaewae, an old suspension bridge that was built in the late 1800s, and on to the town of Te Anau on the shores of Lake Te Anau - the largest lake on the south island. And it's pretty big. We came out here because we wanted to check out what is known as Fiordland on the west coast, aka the 'wet coast'. Te Anau is largely a tourist town, catering to the thousands of people who come here to do some serious hiking. It's mountain country - big, wild and remote.

Tewaewae Beach on the Tasman Sea near Waihoaka

The first NZ suspension bridge at Clifton - built in 1899!

I liked the rock formation here

Just because I love the pampas grass at the side of the highways!

Another one-lane bridge. Getting closer to Te Anau

Finding accommodation here was an exercise in patience. Because of the popularity of the area, summer vacation for New Zealanders and Chinese New Year, it was a real challenge to find a place that fit our budget. So we decided to have our first 'Backpackers' experience. We booked in at a lodge that's about 20 miles out of Te Anau - probably an old fishing lodge or something. It was no palace, but the room had a lovely view of the lake. There was a large communal kitchen and lounge area and we were soon chatting with an English family, a German couple and a couple of young Chinese men. Quite the international gathering. Another couple came in a little later and were chatting in the kitchen with the English group. We heard them say they were from Jasper, Alberta in Canada. So we asked them if they knew Glen's cousin Milt, who is a long-time resident of Jasper. Well of course they did. They also knew another of Glen's relatives - Dave the Plumber. Glen sports Dave's hat a lot, so he put it on and we all had a great chuckle about meeting so far away from home. Small world. They've just come in from a 4-day hike - awesome!

Arriving at the town of Te Anau. Just another helicopter dock.

School kids heading home in Te Anau. Always in uniform in NZ.

John Ward and Glen

Glen, John, Carol and Anne at the Backpackers Lodge at Te Anau

The next day we drove out to Milford Sound, which was the main focus of this part of the journey. It's one of the highly-recommended fiord areas of New Zealand to visit. We had to travel through the Homer Tunnel to get there - from the highway it looked like we were driving right into the mountain. Which we were, essentially! It's 1.2 km long, very narrow and very dark. Cars go through it one way at a time, so lights control it at either end. Apparently it took 19 years to construct!

Yep, we're headed into the mountain. See the tunnel entrance
off in the distance?

At the head of Milford Sound - not a Sound, but a Fiord!

I've learned these odd trees are called
Fierce Lancewood. These are babies.
Such a cool looking tree.

Walking out to the boat dock - get me away
from these sandflies!!!

Our ship for the day - the Milford Wanderer

Amazing huge cliffsides in Milford Sound.

Winding highway back to Te Anau. The rain is causing
multiple waterfalls on the mountainside.

Lineup for the tunnel

It's dark in here!!!

Inside the tunnel

Unfortunately, we chose a rainy day to do our tour of Milford, but I think getting a sunny day is not that common - kind of like going to Long Beach on Vancouver Island -, so we sucked it up and enjoyed it anyhow. We decided to do a boat tour of the sound, which turned out to be a very good thing as there was a covered area for those of us without raincoats. It really is a beautiful place - huge cliffsides, big waterfalls, sealife. It was a relief to get onto the boat. We had about an hour before it left, so we did some walking around the area and were savagely attacked by the billions of sandflies that inhabit the sound. The bites HURT! Needless to say, between the rain and the sandflies, we didn't linger after the boat ride was over.

We've noticed the innumerable rental camper vans here on the south island. They are quite aggressive in their marketing, and you definitely know the rentals vs. the owner-run vehicles.

Jucy vans - big loud colouring and different messaging on them.

Another Jucy van - I like this one!

Wicked Campers has a different approach.

We headed back through the mountain pass, stopping for a little picnic just past the tunnel, and made it back to the lodge in time to enjoy the sunset.