DUNEDIN to TE ANAU

We knew it wouldn't be possible to go everywhere and see everything in South Island in the time available so we had decided not to go further south than Dunedin. This would mean leaving out Invercargill and, especially, Stewart Island but it couldn't be helped.
We drove 80kms. southwest of Dunedin to Balclutha and then turned inland to Gore.

Gore is 71 kms. west of Balclutha and spans the Mataura river (meaning 'reddish swirling water'). We've noticed that every settlement of any size in New Zealand has its own claim to fame, and Gore is no exception, claiming to be the brown trout capital of the world, celebrated by this enormous fish statue in the town centre.

It's also the home of country music, but as it was not a Friday or Saturday night when we visited the Kiwi cowboy Howl at the Wind for our coffee and chips we're not able to verify this. Probably not a bad thing....

We drove on to Te Anau, the gateway town to Fiordland and Milford Sound. Te Anau sits on the shores of one of new Zealand's deepest and most beautiful lakes, ringed by snow-capped peaks. We were staying at the Fiordland National Park Lodge.

Amazingly there were only 4 other people staying there that night, a couple from Essex and a Kiwi couple from Auckland. They proved to be invaluable in giving us advice about where to go after Queenstown. We'd been dithering between taking the west Coast route to Picton, via Nelson, or retracing some of our steps via Mount Cook. They convinced us that we would regret not seeing the glacier. The following night a conversation with 2 climbers staying in the Milford Sound Lodge further cofirmed this choice. They told us that the weather was due to be sunny and warm all week on the west.
Across the road from the Lodge was a short walk to Mistletoe Creek, and we took it next morning before setting off along the Milford Highway.