Sunday 20th February

We awoke to a most beautiful day.  The view from the room was stunning and Linda just wanted to stay in bed and soak up the view.  

We also had a text from Bryony with fantastic news that she has gained her Trainee Manager Post.  She has been acting Ladies Floor Manager since before Christmas so she has worked hard for it.

Unfortunately, we were only here for one night so we had to pack and leave this idyllic location.

We drove to Frankton, along the lake road from Queenstown, and breakfasted at The Tin Goose.  We had a fabulous breakfast and great coffee.

Following the lake south towards Kingston, the views over the lake to The Remarkables was truly remarkable.  We felt as though we wanted to photograph every view.

We stopped in Kingston to take photographs of the railway station and also some of the rolling stock for the Kingston Flyer. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the train as we thought it had set off on its journey to the “nowhere hamlet” of Fairlight.  However, on further investigation it appears that the Kingston Flyer does not run now and what we found appeared to be all that’s left and gathering dust.  There were two engines, one first class carriage, quite a few second class carriages of varying ages and a few trucks.  We did, however, find the Signal Box up for sale.  It comprised of a house and the possibility of a business.  (How about it Ted and Mya, do you fancy going into business with us?   Beautiful weather on one out of three days and apparently you become immune to the sand flies!)  

There were other photo opportunities in this small hamlet.  We were admiring and taking photos of an old Chevy outside and an even older car of indeterminate make in a garage, both in immaculate condition, when the owners waved to us from their upstairs windows and appreciated our interest.

There was also Kings Wheel Cottage, where all of the fencing was made out of wheels of different sizes, which was on Oxford Street.

We had an excellent coffee stop at the Five Rivers Café where we were able to sample the fine coffee and the free smiles!

There was a small paddock with horses, miniature pony, goat and pygmy pig to watch while sitting out in the beautiful sunshine.  In the café there was a display of the most amazing art work.   We could have spent a fortune if we could have got them home!

At Five Rivers we turned off SH6 and took the short cut to Mossburn.  We did consider driving up to the Mavora Lakes (39km from the highway) but when the tarmac road turned into a grit road less than 3km from the highway we decided to turn around and make for Te Anau.

We arrived in Te Anau at about 3.30pm which gave us plenty of time to check in and then go to the Real Travel Office to confirm our boat trip tomorrow up the Milford Sound.  We had a trip to the supermarket for more provisions and sand fly repellent, followed by a trip to the pharmacy for sand fly bite relief.

A visit to the Department of Conservation office informed us of a walk into the woods, beside the lake where we would be able to see some of the birds that we were having difficulty in seeing in the wild.  We saw two kea

Two kahe
and a takahe.

in cages.  We also saw lots of bell birds (that we had seen/heard previously but not identified) not in cages

We were disappointed that the cage for the Tui was occupied by a parakeet.  However, on the way back to the car we managed to see, and photograph a wild Tui (it wasn’t that angry!) and we said to each other that one in the bush is worth ten in the cage..

We called into the hotel to get changed and then we went to The Olive Tree for dinner of Soup, Pork Escalope and Blueberry Parfait.