14 January 2025

Pen feels like she’d enjoyed a week on Stewart Island and has emerged refreshed. My watch gives a “body battery” readout, whatever that means and however it’s calculated, and I feel that if you were to graph my body battery readings it would be a downward curve…

There’s not a lot to report about today, aside from almost literally being mown down…

We had breakfast downstairs at the Foveaux Hotel, had a chat to the proprietor about the legal perils of owning a place like that (they’re all there to protect the proprietor and their guests, but put a lot of onus on the proprietor – which can seem like overkill, especially when it’s also their home.)

Whilst I was talking with the lady, Pen got a phone call from Gazza 42 of Catch-A-Bus (not whatever I called it the other day – Book a Coach, or something,) to say that he’d be outside our hotel soon. Soon turned out to be about five minutes, so we hustled outside and loaded up – scoring the “front” seats in the minibus, despite the rest of it being almost full.

He then drove on to Stirling Point, and everyone else got out. We’re going: “Was it something we said?” “We did have a shower.”

So, it was only the two of us on the journey all the way out to a place in the almost literal middle of nowhere that, according to Google, was Lowther, home to the Five Rivers Café. Gazza 42 told that the bus would pick us up from the other side of the road, and that if we weren’t there they wouldn’t wait, but also that we had plenty of time if we wanted to make use of the café.

So we did; using their facilities and Pen getting a hot chocolate, and me a cheese roll (I’m guessing we were still in Southland) and a Dilmah cinnamon and peppermint tea.

We made sure that we were over the road at 11.30, ready to be picked up some time between 11.45 and 12.15. There was another guy waiting, but he was hitching, so he was asking how much the bus was. That was until another couple who’d been at the café asked him if he wanted a lift.

So then it was just us two.

And a mowing crew.

We watched with some interest, as they mowed with a tractor further down from us, and as another tractor unit with an extendable mowing arm negotiated the road markers on the other side of the road. Then they trundled past the café to the corner, did a U-Turn, lowered the mowing arm, and started coming for us.

It was like being threatened by a Pod Vehicle, so we made a hasty retreat to where they’d already mowed. And then returned to our first place after the mowers had trundled down the road.

And then we waited.

It was quite pleasant, actually. Aside from the traffic that seemed to drive past all too often, it was quiet and peaceful. The low cloud that surrounded us made it seem like it should be cold, but it wasn’t.

Finally, our minibus arrived, towing a luggage trailer. The driver got out, greeted us, and said he only had a booking for one. Pen offered to let me sit on her lap, but fortunately he had the spare seats, so I didn’t wind up walking. What had happened was that we’d booked this trip with Catch-A-Bus, and they’d arranged it from this drop off to Te Anau. At some point, the point that there was two of us had been missed. Pen’s just been checked the web site (so we can book with Catch-A-Bus to go from Queenstown to Kingston), and she says that it’s now saying that if you are going to make our journey, you have to book with Tracknet yourself – which definitely wasn’t on the web site when Pen made the booking. So, I think we’re responsible for some changes.

It was a good, if little cramped and in different rows, trip to Te Anau. Once there, the first stop was to the Department of Conservation headquarters, so that those going on one of New Zealand’s Great Walks could sign in and do the necessary paperwork.

The Fiordland Hotel was the third stop, and we got out.

The Fiordland Hotel is an interesting setup. I’m guessing that it was once a four-star convention centre. Now, it still has the appointments that give its rooms an opulent energy, (Large, plenty of seating, king size and double bed with a partition between, fridge, a toilet/bathroom that’s smaller than the one at the Foveaux Hotel…), yet it’s tired. The carpet’s threadbare and lifting; there’s no lift, yet we had to climb three flights of stairs to get to our level (and two to get back down again), and the hallways look more like a jailhouse than the Jailhouse.

But’s it’s fairly close to town, fairly quiet, and not too expensive.

We went into town for lunch and found a place that did toasted sandwiches and apple crumble cake. Following the quickest of looks around and some breakfast purchases, we bought an ice cream each which we ate in a park. We then returned to the hotel and did a load of washing. And, just like last time, the driers didn’t do a good job of drying our clothes. And it’s not as if the machines were overloaded, as I’d taken out the things that I wanted to hang dry.

So, if you were to walk in here now, you’d see underwear and heavier items draped about all over the place.

Once that was done; and I’d discovered that by accessing the Internet through my anti-virus software, I’ve made it safe from hackers (I wish I’d found this earlier), and was able to do some bank checking; and we’d watched Stephen Le Reviere’s latest YouTube article on Thunderbirds, we went back out to get something to eat.

I last stayed in Te Anau about fifty years ago, and, although I can’t remember, I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t have had a Chinese Restaurant, next to a Thai Restaurant, next to an Indian Restaurant and about six different pizzerias (and even a “pizzeria and spaghettiria” which I didn’t even know was a thing, but I confirmed with Carolyn who’d lived in Italy for years.) There was probably a fish and chip shop and maybe some basic restaurant with a lot of fried foods. Remember back when we arrived at Kaikoura in the rain, with that Israeli family? The mother commented that everything in New Zealand seems to be fried, something that I was, even at that stage, beginning to think was true. (As an aside, I hope they enjoyed their stay in Kaikōura. They arrived in the rain, the next day – the day we did the ziplining – had perfect weather for their whale watching, and then they headed south to Christchurch that afternoon.)

We were expecting to eat at a carvery, but it turned out that it was shut. (I cannot believe that restaurants would close in Te Anau on a Tuesday. The other eating establishments were packed!) We eventually found a pizzeria (not a spaghettiria) and I had fettucine bolognaise with venison and an Italian sparking blood orange.

Following that, we had a quick wander along the foreshore (the wind was cold and the service station was saying it was 14℃. It was 24℃ earlier in the day and, according to Carolyn, 25℃ in Thames.

Then it was back to the hotel, trying to pack what we weren’t going to be using and was dry, and then it was blogging.

So, that’s today. And if anyone’s looking for a blog entry tomorrow night, don’t panic if you don’t see one. We’ll be “cruising” on Doubtful Sound and probably won’t have access to the Internet.

Steps = 19333

Kilometres = 13