Mob Handed Keas

Tuesday February 4^th

I haven't got very much anything nice to say about the Milford Lodge where we parked up for the night and we were glad to leave. This place and Queenstown were the two most expensive camps we stayed in, and it seems to us that they have cornered the marked, and therefore think they don't have to try.

 

In both cases they were happy to take your money, but not provide enough facilities for people. This place was like a dodgy backpackers lodge, so packed in that you had to queue for the bathroom, the showers, and we finally gave up at 9.30  cos we couldn't actually get in the kitchen. And, it looked a bit nasty, so we had a light meal in the van. To top it, it was sandfly infested..... yuk!

So if you are ever coming down this way in a tent or van, just freedom camp, it is free and a lot nicer than this dump.  Enough...

 

Up and on. Subsequently we got up and left early and headed for another morning of an outstanding and beautiful drive back to Te Anau. It was as lovely going back as it was getting here yesterday and we had left a few things to see on the way back.

 

 

 

Again think we were lucky to have got on the boat yesterday, as quite grey and windy today. We also passed hoards of coaches, all packed and driving down to the ferry. A good decision made.

So today's drive was only back to TeAnau a couple of hours away, but had lots of stops to see waterfalls, and lakes, and lovely scenery. 

 

 

 

 

We drove out of the tunnel and stopped to see the waterfall, when next our van was besieged by Keas everywhere.  Mob handed they attacked our van and others.  We were brave and fought them off, but had to retreat to the van and drive away with them hanging on for dear life.   We managed to escape with our lives.

 

 

We checked into our camp right next to the lake, and had a quick drive down to Lake Manipouri to see if we wanted to do another Fjord trip to Doubtful Sound.  It was very expensive, and we decided against it this time.

The camp at Te Anau felt like 5 star compared to last night, the sky was blue, the sun was shining,and we sat in the sun all afternoon. Lovely.... and wondered whether to stay another day and just relax.

In the eventing we had a walk into the town , picked up some grub to cook, and wandered back, via hostelry. It is horrendously expensive in NZ to drink out. I don't know why, the wine and beer isn't that expensive in the shops, but our glass of wine and pint of beer was $19, about £10. So we don't do it often.

We cooked a huge piece of rump steak ($7), which we had with salad, yum. But there was enough left to have a curry tomorrow night.