Manapouri

Last night, I arrived in Manapouri and gave you a photo from the front of the cabin I stayed in. Manapouri is a small settlement where the native forest is still around. It’s on Lake Manapouri, which I found described as the third most beautiful lake in the world (by New Zealand tourism, who didn’t say what the two most beautiful lakes were - but I assume it means that this is the most beautiful lake in New Zealand). Today I took a few pictures from the shores of the lake.

I also changed abode because I couldn’t find one accommodation for three nights. This is the view from my new window.

Tomorrow will be my last full day in New Zealand. I’ll be leaving here early the next day, and driving to Queenstown to catch the plane home.

Invercargill to Fiordland

Today I continued my perambulations along the southern scenic route. Soon after I left Invercargill, I started to see tall mountains with a little snow on their peaks. As the land around Invercargill is fairly flat, I didn’t expect to see Fiordland in the distance quite so soon. The road continued around the coast, and when I stopped at Monkey Island, Fiordland was just the other side of the enormous bay. I could also see Stewart Island. 

At the turnoff to Monkey Island, several cars followed me, all with surfboards on their roofs, but the waves were pretty small, and they all departed quickly for another beach. 

Further along the coast, I lost sight of Stewart Island and the waves were reasonably sizeable. With the Fiordland mountains behind the waves, I thought this could be a poster for New Zealand tourism. 

Then there was Gemstone Beach, with grey sand and people collecting gemstones on the beach. 

The road left the coast just after Riverton. From there, the views were of Fiordland coming closer. I stopped to walk to an oxbow lake, which was very pretty, 

and again at a suspension bridge, and to view the river. 

Both were on the river flowing from Manapouri, where I was headed.

Owaka to Invercargill

It’s only supposed to take two hours to drive from Owaka to Invercargill, but I managed to take eight. Probably because I visited a lot of places on the way.

I began by backtracking to The Tunnel, a walk to and through the most southerly rail tunnel built in New Zealand. It’s dark, so you have to take a torch. 

I photographed both ends 

and then where the actual railway line went. It was all done with pickaxes and shovels back in the 1870s.

I then visited Kaka Point 

on my way to the Nugget Point lighthouse, which was quite a walk, 

but had splendid views all the way. 

There were even some sea lions.

I then stopped at Jacks Blowhole, which said it was only a 20 minute walk, but took at least 45 minutes each way. But, again, there was magnificent scenery and the blowhole was 55 metres deep, 144 metres long, 68 metres wide and 200 metres from the sea. It also had a number of steep uphill sections.

I also visited Purakanui Waterfalls.

Then I passed Caitlin’s Lake, where I saw a lot of birds including a lot of black swans. It’s actually an estuary, and the tide was low.

Matai falls and Horseshoe falls, which were above them, were next.

And there was a magnificent view from a pullout on the road.

You can see why it took eight hours!

Otago

Most of the south east of New Zealand is called Otago. It extends up the coast towards Christchurch, over to Queenstown and south of Dunedin. While the area includes some of the alpine region, there isn’t much. This was an area that benefited greatly from gold rushes, and may have been more prosperous than the rest of New Zealand in that period. A lot of the buildings in Dunedin remind me of those that were built in Victoria as a result of the prosperity generated by the gold rushes, especially in Bendigo and Melbourne, and I was not surprised, given the similar history. Dunedin was founded in 1848, and the gold rushes were in the 1860s. Melbourne was founded in 1835 and the gold rushes were in the 1850s. Both cities grew very fast.

Today I went on another train trip, along the east coast from Dunedin to Oamaru. But first, I took a photo of the fish and chip shop near the station which harks back to former times.

The train was mostly full, and we were all assigned seats. Unfortunately I wasn’t assigned a seat on the sea side. But from time to time I managed to go to the very small open air compartment and take a few pictures of the coast. I was somewhat surprised by the scenery. We were in the lush New Zealand agricultural countryside I associate with the Canterbury Plains further north, rather than a less populated area that I imagined as the south.

The coast was mainly beach with surf waves going for miles, and lots of rocks. It was beautiful.

The commentary included information about various towns that had prospered as ports during the gold rush, 

and Oamaru was one of them. We stopped there for three hours. It’s called the white city, as many of the gold rush buildings were built of the local limestone. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have prospered like Dunedin. But it has an impressive public garden. 

And it has turned itself into a vibrant tourist town with a flourishing arts scene. Although it had been raining in Dunedin, it wasn’t here.

There were even some albatrosses on the beach.

When I got back to Dunedin it was still raining, and I drove down the coast to Owaka in the rain along the southern scenic drive. This was fantastic, with lots of glimpses of the amazing coastline, and patches where I was driving along ridge lines seeing farmland spread out below me. I went through many more towns than I expected. It’s a fairly well populated area. But it was raining, so I didn’t stop for photos.