![Click to enlarge](img/th_6591.jpg) | There are a number of camper/van/car rental agencies in this country with easily-recognised, garishly coloured fleets. Spaceships is on the less-hideous end of the spectrum. They do appear to name their vehicles after characters from films. Here we have Radar and Anakin. (My own car, although a ridiculous shade of blue, is otherwise unremarkable.) |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6592.jpg) | Inbound cataraman. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6593.jpg) | Our boat for the lake crossing. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6597.jpg) | Leaving Te Anau. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6598.jpg) | Fiordland hills on the west bank of the lake. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6601.jpg) | Rain in the fiordlands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6607.jpg) | Sheep stations on the east bank. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6608.jpg) | Coming up on the Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6610.jpg) | Looking back east with the Livinstone Mountains in the background. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6611.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6616.jpg) | Looking southeast from the Dome Islands at the townsite. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6617.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6618.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6619.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6621.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6622.jpg) | Towards the South Fiord. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6624.jpg) | Towards the South Fiord. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6626.jpg) | Dome Islands with the townsite in the distance across the lake. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6628.jpg) | Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6629.jpg) | East bank. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6633.jpg) | The last of the Dome Islands. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6634.jpg) | The Bluffs. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6638.jpg) | Lake Te Anau runs basically north-south, but it has three arms branching off from it to the west which are somewhat unimaginatively names South Fiord, Middle Fiord and North Fiord. This is looking westwards down the lenght of South Fiord from the mount of the arm. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6640.jpg) | West bank. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6641.jpg) | Northward. Lake Te Anau is the largest lake in New Zealand by volume and second largest by surface area. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6642.jpg) | There is a marked difference between the heavily-forested west bank of the lake (part of Fiordlands National Park) and the pastoral east bank. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6645.jpg) | Looking back at the Dome Islands with Mount Luxmore in the background. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6646.jpg) | Southward. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6647.jpg) | Another look down South Fiord under heavy rainclouds. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6651.jpg) | Looking back south. Due to the rain, the north wind, and the speed of the boat, it was much easier to take pictures looking south than north. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6654.jpg) | Looking north. To take a picture looking north, in the direction of travel I had to get ready and quickly take a picture before the lens got coated with water and I'd have to spend time drying it again. Also, rain in the face at 25 knots is not all that pleasant. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6656.jpg) | On the plus side, due to the weather, I had the upper deck to myself. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6672.jpg) | The weather breaks to the south of us. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6680.jpg) | Approaching the dock. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6681.jpg) | Tunnel Burn dock. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6682.jpg) | Tunnel Burn dock. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6685.jpg) | Garden Point at right (the northern entrance to South Fiord). |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6686.jpg) | The shore at Tunnel Burn. As you can see, the weather is clearing steadily. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6687.jpg) | Tunnel Burn. ("Burn" is a Scottish word meaning "stream"). The Tunnel Burn is the stream which runs through the Aurora (Glowworm) Caves. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6693.jpg) | Cavern House. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6697.jpg) | Our situation at Cavern House. Tunnel Burn spends a fair bit of time underground. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6699.jpg) | A cutaway view of the lower half of the Aurora Caves. The tour, starting from the entrance rightward of the photograph, only gets as far in as the Glowworm Grotto at the far right. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6700.jpg) | Entrance to the cave. The entrance is about four and a half feet high, but the path through the cave is otherwise fairly easy. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6701.jpg) | Heading back to the boat after the tour. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6702.jpg) | The east bank again from the dock. There's a log floating in the water. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6704.jpg) | Looking north up the shore, where it's still raining. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6707.jpg) | Re-boarding. There were about seventy people on the tour, but we were broken up into smaller groups of about a dozen for the cave tour. I was in the last, smallest group. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6708.jpg) | Departing the dock. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6709.jpg) | Heading back towards the townsite. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6713.jpg) | Centre Island to the north of us. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6715.jpg) | South Fiord, again. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6717.jpg) | And the east bank. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6721.jpg) | South Fiord. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6735.jpg) | Coming back into town. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6736.jpg) | Back in town. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6738.jpg) | Back in town. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6740.jpg) | Te Anau town from a hill east of town. The Murchison Mountains are in the distance, on the far side of the South Fiord. |
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![Click to Enlarge](img/th_img_6741_pano.jpg) |
(19895x2497, 7203.84 kb) Lake Te Anau and the Te Anau townsite, with the mountains of Fiordland in the distance.
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![Click to enlarge](img/th_6753.jpg) | Rainbow! |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6754.jpg) | The view from my room. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6755.jpg) | 1972 Mini Cooper. ("L" is for Leyland). |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6756.jpg) | Dodge Broters Straight Six. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6757.jpg) | The Cow, where I had lunch. Never really associated her with pizza before. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6758.jpg) | The gondola. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6759.jpg) | Firefighters practising in the park. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6760.jpg) | Downtown Queenstown. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6761.jpg) | Downtown Queenstown. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6762.jpg) | Buskers from Vanuatu raising money. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6763.jpg) | Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6764.jpg) | The harbour. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6765.jpg) | Lake Wakatipu. The yellow thing is a skydiver coming down on a parachute. The skies in Queenstown are full of those sorts of things. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6769.jpg) | Jetboaters at the north end of Lake Wakatipu, near Glenorchy. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6770.jpg) | Jetboating on Lake Wakatipu. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6772.jpg) | Jetboating on Lake Wakatipu. Passengers seem to have fun. Drivers seem to have even more fun. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6774.jpg) | Hills above Glenorchy. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6776.jpg) | The Glenorchy War Memorial. Two things:- Glenorchy was apparently once called "Head of Lake";
- Aparently no one got around to telling Glenorchy the war was over until 1920.
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![Click to enlarge](img/th_6777.jpg) | The Glenorchy Cafe. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6781.jpg) | At the cafe, they give you a number on a stick to so they know where to bring your food. Except my number turned out to be "Bad Santa". |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6782.jpg) | "2 Old Pensioners on an Adventure B 4 Dementia". (They were driving exceedingly slowly, which gave me an opportunity to take this picture.) |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6783.jpg) | My road atlas, showing the area around Queenstown. I had noticed the iconograph for Lord of the Rings locations, but I just noticed there's also an iconograph for bungy jumping. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6785.jpg) | Arrowtown. Old-timey. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6786.jpg) | Arrowtown. Old-timey. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6787.jpg) | Random old-timey stuff (for all your old-timey picture taking needs). |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6788.jpg) | AJ Hackett didn't invent bungy jumping, but he certainly turned it into the phenomenon it is today. And all from Queenstown. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6789.jpg) | TSS Earnslaw, a steamer than runs up and down the lake. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6790.jpg) | The hills outside by room at Arthur's Point, again; this time with fewer ominous looking clouds. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6791.jpg) | Farming near Arthur's Point. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6792.jpg) | Up above Queenstown. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6793.jpg) | Also, Frankton. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6795.jpg) | Me with the Remarkables in the background. If they look familiar, that's because they were used as the mountains in the Lord of the Rings. (The hill in front also stood in for large swathes of Rohan). |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6796.jpg) | Farmland to the east of Queenstown. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6797.jpg) | Me, again, with the Land Rover. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6800.jpg) | Jetboating in the Gorge on the Shotover River. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6801.jpg) | The Arrow Gorge irrigation scheme. Water from the Arrow River was transported down to irrigate the farms in the valley below. The aqueduct is still in use. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6805.jpg) | On top of the Arrow Gorge Aqueduct, built 1920. The vertical pipe is an air vent, necessitated by the syphoning of the water through a dip upstream. The rocks around the pipe are tailings from gold rush times. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6807.jpg) | TSS Earnslaw in port. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6808.jpg) | TSS Earnslaw with the Remarkables behind. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6809.jpg) | Evening sun on the Remarkables. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6811.jpg) | Sunset over the harbour. |
![Click to enlarge](img/th_6813.jpg) | Laurent Piron, a travelling Belgian magician, who gave a very entertaining show for us. |