Ginny and Duncans Big Adventure

We like Te Anau.  It's situated on Lake Te Anau, in Fiordland, and while it's pretty flat, the magnificent complex of mountains and fiords are only a hair's breadth away.  It's also a lot quieter and calmer than Queenstown. Yes, we like it. Having arrived late the previous night and checked ourselves into our motel apartment, we were up bright an early, as we had a tour booked to go and experience the wonderfully named Doubtful Sound.  We'd been told by Joyce at the I-site in Q'town, that Milford Sound is so busy with boats, kayaks and helicopters, that it really isn't very peaceful, and that we would enjoy Doubtful much more.  How right was she! Doubtful Sound isn't really a sound at all; it's a fiord, as a post-glacial valley flooded by the sea, but Sound stuck with the early sealers and whalers, so a Sound it is.  Captain James Cook got close to the entrance in 1770, but, fearing he would not be able to sail the Endeavour back out, resisted e...

Having picked up our very exciting Toyota Hilux in Christchurch we had no time to waste: I'd booked us onto the Routeburn Track tramp 2 days later, which starts close-ish to Queenstown, about 6 hours drive, and we needed to arrange transport to and from the track end points before then.  With Anne, in Geraldine We took off down Route 1, taking us south-west.  Route 1 just happens to pass through a small town called Geraldine, where an old friend of Duncan's family emigrated to a couple of decades ago.  As we passed through, we figured we should drop in, in true Kiwi style.  One google later, and we had Anne's work address, and 20 minutes later, were sitting in her office swapping stories.  She generously invited us to stay at her home and bach (kiwi for cottage) further down on the east coast - which we'll try to fit in to our plans. Glorious Mount Cook But first on to Queenstown.  The road took us straight across country, past endless fi...