Tour Day 18 - Te Anau to Invercargill area (Fortrose)

           

Heading South

Day Begins

Lakeview Holiday Park had been perfect, wonderful views, showers and kitchen area to list a few pluses.

Breakfast done, we stowed everything as usual. It is quite a practiced routine by now.

Then it was drive the van round to the dump station to empty our grey (sink & shower) water; empty, flush and recharge the toilet cannister (black water) . Fill up with fresh water and get rid of rubbish and recycling. We're Freedom camping tonight with no services and now we're ready for the road.

morning view from pitch Lakeview Holiday Park

Tea Anau

We needed a few stores so headed back into the town. 

Our introduction to Te Anau on Sunday night had been unfortunate. It had created an impression of a dead town as everywhere seemed to be shut at 4:40pm. We had stopped for a coffee before heading up the Milford Road and the last coffee shop shut it's doors on us as we stopped opposite.

However, this morning we went back into town to Fresh Choice for a few groceries before departing and it felt completely different. Seeing Te Anau this morning I would have said it looked a very nice base town for exploring the area. First impressions can be wrong.

Heading South

Today was to be a driving day with just a few stops. We are heading around the Southern reaches of the South Island. We could have cut across toward Dunedin but having come all this way we planned to visit the Southernmost region; the equivalent of feeling a need to do the North Coast of Scotland.

The mountains of Fjordland drifted further away and after we passed through the gap with another range the world was familiarly British Isles in colour and texture.  Pretty rolling green countryside, though admittedly on a grander scale than home.  

Dairy, beef and sheep seem to be the overriding industry with endless lush green fields feeding high density farming. Apparently powdered milk is a major export of NZ and we did see two massive processing plants fed by trailer tankers once near the south coast.

Manapouri

Mountain Range in distance, Whare Creek

zoomed in a little

real view

We stopped by a 19th century wooded suspension bridge and ambled out onto it. A guy was panning for gold down on the shore below.  As we walked back the rain returned again and the remainder of the run south was windscreen wiper territory.

Clifden Suspension Bridge

South Coast

We arrived on the south coast at McCracken's Rest, a waypoint on our planning map and therefore significant but were greeted by buffeting winds, dark skies and rain. We hunkered down and had lunch in the van with the heater running.

By the time lunch was done, the rain was close to stopped a we had a brief blow outside before beginning our journey East along the coast of Southland.

Alternating miles of pastureland and small hamlets we reached Invercargill which to our surprise was a significant town. All along the approaches were car and big farm machinery sales and there were shops and workshops aplenty. 

Pahia: ,first sight of sea on Southlands

McCracken's Rest

We visited NZ's 'Lands End', Stirling Point with it's sign post telling us we were 19,000 km from London but only 4,500 from the South Pole. Though still coat and jersey weather the sky was much clearer and we even ambled a couple of hundred metres to the lighthouse and back.  We stalled for a while watching a massive container ship meeting the pilot and heading into Invercargill.

Stirling Point, Bluff

Sterling Point (Land's End)

South Pole

London

Finally about 6pm we reached Fortrose Terraces where were to stop for the night. This was our first and only excursion into Freedom camping. We had a stunning spot backed onto a beach strewn with massive washed up logs.

parked up for night at Fortrose

Having arrived and setup in lovely weather the skies, seemingly inevitably, darkened and the wind and heavy rain came in mid evening for what was to prove to be another rough night.

Statistics: Miles today: 179 ; Miles so far: 2,033 ; Fuel added so far: 331.5 litres ; South Island; Time Zone: UTC +13 New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT )