A visit to another country (South Is) Day 3

Day 3 Queenstown to Te Anau May 23

Couldn't afford to stay in QT for very long, just found the Airport (where I'm going to return the car) and next to it was a new retail park, so we thought we'd take a look! Only went to a coffee shop (run by Asians of course) and to the most up-market branch of 'The Warehouse' which we'd ever seen. The Warehouse is a cut-price store, red in colour (usually) selling lots of cheap stuff made in China mainly, useful occasionally of course. This one was unique in that it was built from 'schist', the local grey stone, as used in the Church of the Good Shepherd. We meant to take a photo, but forgot!

Decided to drive straight to Te Anau, since heavy rain/snow was forecast and we didn't know what the road was like. Fortunately it was very good, a bit bendy to begin with along the shores of the lake, but a surprise to us, the countryside around was really green and lush (all that rain of course). Cold though, we are definitely getting nearer to Antartictica! Took the Scenic Route again via Lake Manapouri, the deepest lake in NZ, it actually goes 276m below sea level, quite odd when you think about it. 34 islands on it too, very pretty. It was saved from flooding in the 90s, they wanted to put in another dam for hydro-electrics. Now used as a starting point for trips to Doubtful Sound. Later in the hostel we heard about an overnighter on a boat there, I would like to do that some time, but in warmer weather! Expensive too, so on my pension I probably can't afford it. Notable event was the car filling up with pesky sandflies when we left the door open while looking at the map, they bite! Even Captain Cook had trouble with them.

Te Anau was very different from Queenstown, a definite Kiwi town. We did find one dept store, & guess what, my sister lived up to her reputation and bought a pair of shoes (she has 70+ pairs already)! I did too, only problem is how to get them back, we have both brought too many clothes, though the layers are proving essential. We went to a lovely film in the little local cinema, which was really a helicopter view of the Fiordland National park set to music, amazing and very moving.

YHA Hostel practically new, lots of very young foreign students, dirty kitchen, fortunately we ate out at the local Indian so not a problem!