Deep South

Early morning photo, Lake Gunn heading on  toward Milford Sound 

Left Mavora heading south onto Invercargill to catch up with my late sister Suzanne's family -husband Lennox and their 3 children, now well grown and with their own families. Was good to catch Lennox and my nieces, Davinna her partner Malcolm & kids Shyanne, Jasmin & Gabriel one day, and the next day, after a quick bike around Otatara, Natasha, partner George,and kids Orielle, Teryn with Lennox Junior also there visiting his own children, Kayla presently also living with her
Aunty Natasha, as well. Its complicated.

Parked up at Otatara

With the seasonal nature of much of the work in Southland, that the families are involved in, it is difficult for them to get much forward traction. What was really pleasing to see was the weight loss both Nieces have achieved over the last couple of years after making life changing decisions, wishing to avoid Suzanne's weight issues and her premature death at 54.
We stayed on Dorothy & JimYoung's property just out of Invercargill at Otatara, a rural area near the estuary and Oreti Beach. They were family friends we often visited and camped with in our Invercargill days. There were 12 children so there was always some one for every one....
Sadly Jim recently passed but Dorothy is in fine form and we spent 3 pleasant evenings reminiscing and importantly recording where her 12 are now, to look up and visit as we continue our travels .

Walking around the Bluff Headland - trees growing with the wind

Looking back into Riverton /Aparima

Our parents have kept the contacts going and thus we have had snippets over the years, undoubtedly both ways, but with our parents generation slowly passing this is something that now takes on a new urgency as we ourselves get older.
Lunched in Invercargill and the obligatory stroll around -The local hardware store, (Hammer Hardware I think) is huge. They have a huge range of everything and amazingly a second to none collection of old motoring memorabilia including Bert Munro's old bikes, indeed most of his work shop. This is kinda close to my heart as my Dad regaled us with exploits of beach racing at Oreti Beach where Bert was often to be found, fine tuning his bikes then racing against the lads, always with a word or three of advice.
Monday saw us venturing to lands end, "Bluff" doing a 7.8km walk around the headland.
Bluff has been unable to reinvent itself since a lot of industry has moved away. It still is a busy "ish" place, with the smelter, oysters and fishing, not forgetting, the start & finish point for many travellers odysseys up and down the country not the least being the Aotearoa Trail. However a drive round the quiet back streets reveals a far from burgeoning economy. Indeed it may well be a choice place to invest in, Bluff being nestled on the hill above the port with a northerly aspect, and largely sheltered from the howling Southerlies, it seems idyllic. Perhaps the howling Westerlies, Easterlies and Northerlies negate this quaint picture, but ..........maybe........

The start of the Kepler Track

Mum showing her young one how to dismember it's food
At the same time keeping an eye on us

A lonely  fresh water mussel shell.
Lake TeAnau.

 We lunched on  lovely fresh Blue Cod. I'm sorry you "snapper fixated" people in the NI. Cod is hard to beat. The weather wasn't looking so promising to go to Stewart Is. This would need to be a few days, and we weren't well prepared, so put this excursion on hold for another time. With the cooler unsettled weather (not forgetting our proximity to Foveaux Strait) we decided to start heading north.
Next -Invercargill to Colac Bay through Riverton - cloudy and cool. A couple of hours in the Museum for some early history of the area. The stories of hardship, plundering of resources, the sealers, whalers, loggers, goldminers and settlers never ceases to grab my attention. Aye....... they were lucky...... there is always a worse story of hardship and deprivation to be found. .
Pushing on through to Manapouri & TeAnau hoping for more settled weather for a night or two - we ended up staying 4 nights at the lovely  TeAnau NZMCA camp handy to town.
Walked the start of the Kepler, on the TeAnau foreshore, lovely mossy Beech forests, the bird life, alive with Bell birds and fantails and were lucky to watch a pair of NZ Falcons feeding on a small bird from just a few metres. They kept a wary eye on us but continued plucking the hapless carcase and shredding it to gorge on. At this distance a close encounter was had & the photos easy - an opportunity which doesn't come often.

Morning mist on Mirror Lakes.

Fresh snow capped mountains on the way to Hollyford Camp

The Gunn Hollyford Camp 

Memorabilia from the past at Gunn Camp

These mountains are majestic as we travel toward Homer Tunnel 

This Kea had already tried to strip our Bus of bling

Stirling Falls

Looking back into Milford Sound from the open sea

 Mitre Peak in Milford

Also found on the shore a mussel shell. Again a rarity and something I've come to realise only recently that such things exists ie fresh water mussels. We had a guided tour thru the Timaru Maori Rock Art Experience a few days ago and the young Maori guide knew that they existed, however, he opined, not recognised as a palatable food source least ways not in times of plenty. Probably just need a dash of salt.......
The local info board at our TeAnau camp highly recommended a smaller local tour company offering a day outing and cruise on Milford Sound. Sheryl did not need to twist my arm very hard and we booked for the following day, fingers crossed for the weather. Over night was cool with rain showers, but were delighted to wake to a fine day and a sprinkle of snow well down on the mountains.
And so our day went, full of highlights, with a personable driver guide, Ray, who was able to navigate our small coach into places the big buses didn't go thus avoiding the swinging selfie sticks and incessant clicking of hundreds of cameras, you get the picture. Interspersed with some walks and a 2 hr cruise, a lovely morning tea break at Gunn Camp down the the Hollyford valley, it was a day to remember, and we have the 300 odd photos to prove it. However no selfie stick was used  on the making of our tour.
Interestingly Ray said in the height of the season they can have  6000 visitors daily, the bulk by coach out of Queenstown, also many self driving in their rental motor homes and cars. The odd wing mirror litters the road and not all from the mischievous Kea.. Parking was diabolical to say the least, even this late in the season, another good reason to take the tour.
Despite the numbers, Milford is still a stunning place to visit, the many boats and planes detract from it, but don't ruin the sheer beauty of the Sounds.(but do strain the credulity of the word "isolated") We are a lucky people to have these wonders so accessible.
With the weather a bit hit and miss our batteries for the fridge are starting to struggle, a problem we were aware of but yet to rectify. However with not plugging in to boost them up for over 4 weeks, and with the War Birds enforced 4 day camp coming up it was deemed prudent to find a place to charge up for 48 hrs or so. Kingston came to mind as well located for our rendezvous with J&M at Queenstown's Jack's Point Wednesday night. Then onto Wanaka Thursday night. So Kingston it was. Another nostalgic  wander round the quiet but now rapidly growing village.  We took a shortish bike ride to Allen's Valley and the Trotter homestead ruins. Now well diminished from my boyhood memories (need to find the old photos for comparison) and certainly an easy trip compared to the mighty excursion it was back in the day. Tho to be fair we didn't have the luxury of the new "Round the Mountain Bike Trail" that takes you there directly from the bottom of the lake. In "the day" we would variously follow the rail line, farm trails, stock trails, and bush bash our way on foot.
We followed this up with a walk round the lakes Western side to One Mile creek on an old stock trail presumably from Half Way Bay. Again, in the day, it was well covered and we resorted to pushing thru broom and ferns on occasion but it appears now Doc. have resurrected the old trail as it is now well cleared being a well benched all weather stock track from yesteryear. Whether it still connects to the bay is a mute point and one that may be followed up on another occasion.

Takahe at the Wildlife Bird Sanctuary in Te Anau
(First time both of us have seen a live one)

We are now on the doorstep of Wanaka for War Birds over Wanaka this Easter. Also delighted to hear from our good friends Sam & Pauline from Hahei who are also heading there, this bodes well for a big weekend.....