Around the World in 34 Days

Back in Queenstown for a few hours on the way to Wanaka and thought it was time to update you on what we've been up to. Te Anau is a VERY quiet place after Queenstown, however we all loved our apartment at Radfords Lakeview Motel - spacious and comfortable (and cheap!) highly recommended. We arrived in Te Anau on Saturday after picking up the hire car and unfortunately it was another low cloud, poor visibility day. We were booked in on the Glow Worms Caves trip, which began with a boat trip across Lake Te Anau but the cloud meant we couldn't see much at all!. It was pretty cool going into the cave and seeing the little lights of the worms, although we got much more detail about the life cycle of the glow worm than I ever wanted!
Sunday was our trip to Milford Sound. We went with EcoTours, and the driver was the very entertaining Max. To liven the trip up, we had a puncture on the way! The boat trip on the Fjiord itself (not really a sound at all - misnamed) was spectacular despite the clouds hanging around. Loads of waterfalls and a few seals, plus plenty of rain!
On Monday (yesterday) we did the Doubtful Sound trip. Doubtful Sound is much less travelled than Milford. It is more remote, and much bigger, so not quite as dramatic as Milford, but just as beautiful. We began with a tour of Lake Manapouri Power hydro electric power station - quite interesting, then made our way to the remote Deep Cove and boarded our boat. We were much luckier with the weather - a few clouds, but lots of sunshine. The natural beauty of the place was enhanced by some wildlife spotting. Two small blue penguins (although didn't really get close enough to see them) a few seals lazing in the sun, a fleeting glance of an unidentified whale, but best of all, a group of dolphins! This was definitely the highlight. There were several adults and youngsters swimming together. When we speeded off a few did that leaping thing in the boats wake which was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get any great shots of that - dolphins were too fast!
Anyway, we enjoyed our time in Te Anau a lot. Very quiet, but had terrific meals at The Ranch (another highly recommended there), super accomodation and beautiful trips. Do have a look at the photo album again. Unfortunately the pictures aren't in order - think Photobox orders them by number. I've added one of the dolphin, two from the Milford trip, one of the hotel in Te Anau and one of us at the Glow Worm caves.
The Photo Album