Friday - kayaking in the sun

Despite a forecast of rain for the morning, we woke to a wonderful sunny day. We were in the lounge for 8.30 am for the briefing, and discovered that Real Journeys are very efficient, and had sent a message that we still owed $50 for our power station tour on the Wednesday.

There were 7 of us in our kayaking group, plus Will our guide. It was a day of gently paddling round the edges of the sound whilst being constantly amazed at the height and steepness of the rocks around us.

 

We stopped for lunch on a small beach, with just enough wind to keep the sand flies at bay, or so we had hoped. Though generally very easy paddling we did have a couple of times of having to go against the wind while coping with the wakes from the many boats in the Sound.

We didn't see much wild life, except a fur seal dozing in the sun, and this cormorant who obliging opened his wings for a few moments just as I had the camera focused on him.

The sun and the snow combined made for magical scenery, and it was interesting to discover that this was the first time our guide had seen snow on the peaks, apparently it's very unusual at this time of year.

Towards the end of the day we paddled up a small creek, a totally different experience to canoeing on the main sound. The moss was hanging from the trees and there was no sound except for the cicadas.

We had been well supplied with thermals and jackets as the air temperature was still below 10 degrees, but under the trees we all got too hot.

When the canoeing was finished, we changed into dry clothes, found the local dump station, then set off back towards Te Anau. First stop was at The Chasm, a bit of a tourist trap, but well worth seeing. The river had carved out a sequence of circular holes as it cut through the rock. What looks like a stick of wood in the hole on the right of the photo is actually a full sized tree. It's hard to get your head round the scale of the nature here.

 

Then it was time to drive back up to the Homer Tunnel, but this time with the ability to see all the mountains surrounding us. When we went through the tunnel yesterday the temperature was zero, today it was plus 10.

At about 4pm we arrived back at Gertrude's Track, the walk we had decided not to do in the rain on the previous day. This time it was still gloriously sunny, so we set off on the first part of the trail, just to the snow wall. It was relatively easy walking, and went through gravel river beds, grassy meadows, areas filled with hebes of all sorts, and a couple of small sections of forest. A lovely walk!

We walked for about 2 hours, and the level of one of the rivers we had to cross had dropped dramatically even in this short time. We went from having to use stepping stones to just being able to walk across the gravel. We were so glad we had not attempted the walk the day before: we would have found some parts impassable, and we wouldn't have had the pleasure of walking it today. Just before the finish of the walk the ice melt fed stream opened up into a small pond, of a wonderful blue hue.

We are now camped just below Lake Gunn, in the company of many other vans and tents. Our bodies feel very tired, both arms and legs got separate, but hard, work outs today!

Tomorrow it's on to Queenstown - meals in restaurants and luxury BBQ lunches for the next couple of days! Meanwhile, an early night is called for.

 

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