June 15, 2017 – from Owaka to Te Anau, via the Southern Scenic Route

Yea, this was a tiny little room and we’re out of it before sunrise!  Although the two-lane, curvy road is a little difficult in the pre-dawn, we’ve been on it before as we’re retracing our route to the waterfall from yesterday afternoon.  By the time we’re on new territory the morning is nearly upon us.  Silhouetted against the pre-dawn glow we see a herd of deer!  Then there is the most glorious sunrise.

Started out in the dark!

We’re hoping for breakfast in one of the tiny towns shown on the Southern Scenic Route map that last night’s host has given us.  He’s quite proud of the map and says people even take them home and frame them!  Unhappily, the towns are even smaller than one might expect.  Not only is nothing open;  nothing is even there except a few houses!  There is a better chance at the Whistling Frog Café which is supposed to be adjacent to a waterfall;  but the frog won’t be open for hours and the waterfall is a three-kilometer hike.  We’ve got too much ground to cover today for that long a hike to an unknown waterfall.  Instead we park in their empty car park and make PBJs that should hold us for a while.

A couple of hours down the road we come to the Fortrose Café and it is both open and inviting.  Truth to tell, it just had to be open to make us happy!  There are only a few people inside and we have our choice of tables.  The breakfast menu is a typed sheet on a clipboard and we choose from eggs benedict, the super breakfast, a portobello omelet or mueslix.  I opt for the eggs benedict with bacon while Marilyn’s super breakfast is like a Full Irish with bacon, sausage, two eggs, grilled tomato, hash browns and two slices of toast. Both meals are served on thick, wooden plates that are more like cutting boards.  Very cool!  The heat source is a gas stove in the corner and we’ve chosen the table closest to it.

The green on her back matches her ear cuff!

These guys hopped off the bus at the Fortrose Cafe but never went in!

The young man who takes our orders explains the different coffees to me and I wimp out and get the mocha.  Next time I’ll try the flat white.  Extra caffeine is a great idea!

Down the road again and we’re traveling along the coast and the endless crashing waves are like a magnet, pulling us off the road to be mesmerized by them.  Marilyn spots a game of black swans!! (Honest!  OED says it’s a game!) They are a bit far away but so fascinating!

 Everyone said we had to stop in Riverton to visit the pau shell factory store.  It requires a bit of sleuthing to find it; but shopping is always worth the effort!

As we turn north we are treated to hillsides dotted with those white, woolie beasts in uncounted numbers!  And there are cattle and a few horses, and three different pastures filled with deer!  Many meat sources. 

Today we see two more rainbows!  There have been occasional light drizzles;  but never when we have wanted to get out of the car for picturizing.  We’ve been so very lucky with the weather!

They use trees as boundary markers;  but they trim them straight up the sides and sometime flat across the top!

The only time we have trouble navigating is in Invercargill which is a very large town.  It’s the only time the Southern Scenic Route hasn’t been marked and after driving around without an idea where we’re going we finally pull into a Hess station to ask for directions.  There we meet Gabriel, a delightful young man who has no accent at all!  Marilyn asks why and he says it’s because he’s from the same country we are! He’s from Florida!  From Plantation!  What are the odds? His mother works there, too, and is a Columbian.  She’s married to a Kiwi whom she met in Miami through another Columbian who met the Kiwi in Korea!  And Gabriel is living with his South African girl friend whom he met in Germany!  They’re their own UN! 

The Kiwi owns the Kia dealership right next door to the Hess station.  Mom has worked for Hess for many years, running stores in “all the little towns” in Florida.  And there are a lot of them!

Anyway, the turn off to the SSR is just down the street and we’re on our way again. We comment, once again, that it’s the people that make traveling so much fun.

Those glorious, snow-capped mountains are back!  I hope that the winds will not be like those at Nugget Point.  Did I mention that I clung to the inside of the path because the winds were strong enough to blow you off the path and into the ocean?  It’s coming up from the Antarctic and really, really cold!

We arrive in Te Anau before dark and drive along the water until we find our Top Ten Holiday Park – Te Anau.  It is such a dramatic change from last night’s holiday park!  The room is larger, with a double bed and a twin – both on the ground – and a table with two chairs and a mini-fridge and toaster and electric kettle! The showers and bathroom are quite close, very clean and large, and brightly lit.  There is a large game room for the kids with two arcade-type Segas and lots of other stuff.  The girls at reception are very helpful, giving us coffee and milk and helping us book our tour of Milford Sound.  Because we’re booking through the park we get a “buy one-get one half off “ deal.  Yay!

We also get directions to the local cinema which shows a thirty-minute movie about the Sound, called Fiordland on Film.  The Fiordland National Park is larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined!!  There is no narration, just spectacular footage shot from a helicopter, treating us to views that we’d never get otherwise.  And we can order food and beverages!  I have a glass of the local Fiordlands pinot noir that is very yummy, and we both get a Ploughman’s sandwich.  That turns out to be the name of the bread company, but this variety is a German rye and comes with smoked cheese and ham.  It arrives on another wooden platter accompanied by “French Maid New York-style relish” and our young lady deposits them on the little tables that is built into our armrests.

After our dinner and a movie – my favorite evening out! – we walk back to our cabin.  But first we stop at the grocery to restock our provisions.  We’re out of coffee!  I started the trip drinking tea;  but I need more of a jolt in the mornings now!  We also get some bread and a smoked cheese and several different varieties of pre-prepared tuna for sandwiches.  And a local reisling!  I see the Jacob’s Creek double-barrel cabernet sauvignon that Gabriel recommended;  but Marilyn isn’t really a red drinker, so that will wait.  I am eager to try it, though, after his luscious description!

On our walk we also see a “carvery” restaurant (like a Brazilian steak house?) and Kiwi-style tapas which includes “beef cheek, wild venison, octopus, rabbit, and more”.

Back to our cabin and we find it’s too warm!  What a delight!  Leaving the door open a little while fixes that and we are off to enjoy the spacious, hot showers and organize for tomorrow’s tour.  We are to meet in the lobby before eight where an eighteen passenger bus will take us to the boat, with photo stops along the way. The boat holds one hundred and fifty people and has a nature narrator on board.  There is also a picnic lunch provided and we’re supposed to be back by four o’clock.  Plenty of time to be settled before dark around 5:15!

(I want to add a couple of photos from my phone - check back for them, since gmail isn't happy with me right now!)