Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

With no excitement in our bones to explore much around Invercargill we limited our tourism to visiting the hardware store where “Bert’s” Indian motorcycle (better known from the movie “The Fastest Indian”) was on display along with a number of other old motorbikes.

From there we headed north. The weather forecast for the next few days looks good and we have a plan for the next few days. Suggested to us by Judy and Colin in Napier we’re going to ride the Otago Railway. There are no rails there now but the rail bed and all the bridges and tunnels are which makes for an excellent cycle path. Helen is feeling a little punch drunk from the rain and is preferring to cycle the whole 150km in 3 days rather than risk a rainy 4th. That means we’re staying in Lauder tomorrow night and in Waipiata the following night before returning here on Friday.

“Here” is a wonderful place. We’re staying at ‘Marj’s Place’ which is a homestead/backpackers. Very reasonably priced accommodation with nice rooms, great shared lounge/kitchen, nice bathroom, shower and even a sauna. Which I’ve already used.

We’ve spent the last couple of hours watching the news on TV. The earthquake here in NZ Christchurch has been devastating. To think that the cathedral tower we climbed three weeks ago has come down probably never to be rebuilt. We are saddened to hear of the death count that is already 65 but greatly relieved to speak to Frank and Karen who happened to be in the center of the city when the earthquake hit. They saw the tower come down and the scenes after. They now get to reflect on the fact they were about to climb the tower minutes later.

This will be my last blog for a few days. I’ve decided not to lug the laptop with me and I’ve not been bothered to set up email from my phone. The world can do without us for a few days.

On Monday morning we woke to torrential rain. It was ironic that this was the forecast rain we’d been trying to avoid for the weekend and now that we had no time left in the room, the rain was pouring down. Our first thought was to Laura and Martin on the trail. They’d be drenched on their walk to the next hut. And on their next day, snow was forecast. We know that Andy and Ryan from Zephyrus are on also the trail. You never know, perhaps it was a little different where they were.

We had to move on so after vacating the room and having a late breakfast we headed into town and watched the impressive Shadowlands movie. It was filmed over 10 years inspired by a local helicopter pilot and filmed in a cinema he’d built in town. It’s the only place the movie is shown and was a great experience.

After the movie we had to dash back to the car to minimize the drenching. We decided to head down the southern scenic route and see what would happen. Perhaps away from the mountains things would be better.

As we approach Tuatapere the weather did clear. We stopped to see the limestone caves/tunnel in the area. It was a self guide/crawl through a 300m underground limestone tunnel. It was a little harder to navigate than we were prepared for so we only made it as far as the second entrance. The way onward was down a very tight squeeze which we passed on and headed back.

Nearby was the Clifden suspension bridge (British engineers will appreciate the pun) which we stopped by to look at and take a few photos. It is now fallen into disuse but at one point it was the longest suspension bridge in the country.

The rain caught up with us here so we pressed on to Tuatapere to see if it was worth staying. The accommodation was basic but cheap. While visiting one place in town someone in the kitchen gave us the warning that a sheep shearing party was staying there and were extremely rowdy at night. Inquiring further it was confirmed this was due to drink and partying not their bringing their work home with them.

The town highlight was the store labeled the ‘sausage capital of NZ’. It won a national sausage competition three years in a row a while back. It’s changed owners since but the recipe is still in use. We used up whole minutes visiting the shop and buying some sausages. We were done with Tuatapere.

With the rain having fully overtaken us we pressed on along the scenic route. We stopped off at a couple of view points along the way. Helen remained in the car while I ran out to take a picture and ran back wet.

We stopped off at Riverton which may have been a quaint seaside village but in the torrential rain it just felt grim. We kept going.

We decided to stop outside Invercargill. It offered the possibility of doing things inside. We found a place to stay and settled in. Having skipped lunch we decided to eat out followed by the cinema. After our early dinner the rain found a way to fall down with greater density. The curb was a small stream which we had to leap over to get in the car. We abandoned the thought of the movie and headed back to our room for the evening.

This morning it’s still raining but not as bad. Off to breakfast and to decide what to do today.

The alarm went off at 7am. We’d packed as much as possible the night before so we groggily arose and packed the remainder of our stuff and the tent. Fortunately the night had been warm and there was no dew on the tent. We had time for breakfast before setting off along the road to Milford Sound.

The sky was overcast and rain did fall on our way north. At one point we wondered if we’d made a bad gamble on the weather. However, the low clouds were sporadic and we were able to see most of the mountains around us. As we approached the tunnel we were rewarded with water cascading down the bare bowls of the valley ends. Exiting the tunnel we were presented with an awesome sight of the valley beyond with more cascading falls from the very recent rains.

We arrived at the visitor center with over an hour to spare so we checked in and went for a wander around. The was a 15 minute return hike to a lookout point that took us about 5 minutes. At one point we spotted a penguin sitting in the bushes and took a few pictures.

The boat we’d picked was the Mitre Point service because we’d (correctly) heard it was the smallest boat out there and that we would be able to stand at the front of the boat getting close to the places we would be taken. When it was time to board the boat we made our way to the front and settled down. The cruise around the sound took a couple of hours. The scenery although mostly lacking sunshine was pretty spectacular. On a couple of occasions we saw fur seals basking on the rocks and we were taken very close to a few waterfalls. The last week had been quite dry so a lot of the falls were dry too but the main ones were flowing with vigour.

On the way back from the sound we stopped off at a nearby place called The Chasm where water had turned the rocks into a honeycomb with holes large enough for trees to get stuck in. I forgot my camera on this one and had to take pics with my phone.

At ‘The Divide’ where we had planned to hike a small part of the Routeburn Trail we stopped to check things out. The clouds overhead were quite low and would give us no view if we climbed up to where we wanted to go. Helen was feeling as though a cold was coming on so we skipped this hike and headed back into Te Anau to shop and then onto the Backpackers to settle in.

And the Barnyard Backpackers is where we are. We’ve had a good night’s rest. The shared area in the barn was quite cozy in the evening with a real log fire blazing. We’ll be here for a few days. The rain has started but is not yet strong. We’re feeling the need for a couple of days of rest following our recent activity and this seems a nice place to get it. There is no internet hotspot here but I can use my phone as a modem. It works fine in the barn but here in the room the signal is weak. I’ve managed to have a session by putting my phone up on top of the curtain rail.