Here follows the account of the journey of four Satterfields from Te Anau to Queenstown to Glenorchy to Queenstown (again) to Arrowtown. I’ve included Milford Sound, our previous destination, on the map so you can see how much driving is required to bridge so little distance in such rugged terrain.
After our Milford Sound cruise and Key Summit hike, we drove back into Te Anau and spent the night in a hotel. The next morning, I woke up and ran along the southern shore of Lake Te Anau, turning around when I reached the Kepler Track trailhead. Unbeknownst to me, the Te Anau Wildlife Centre was on my path, and as I ran by I was able to get a good look at a number of indigenous New Zealand birds, including the Takahē.
I saw three or four of these, which means I saw between one and two percent of the entire population of Takahē still living on the planet. According to the Compendium of All Knowledge in This Universe or Any Other, otherwise known as Wikipedia, there were 263 of these birds when they were counted in 2013, which is up from their earlier numbers. They were thought to be extinct in 1898, but rediscovered in a remote part of Fiordland in 1948. They’re cool looking birds, too, but because I was running, I couldn’t take a picture. Luckily, the internet exists, and so does animalscamp.com, where the following picture comes from.
After my run, I joined Mom, Dad, and Cole for breakfast, and then we hit the road again. Two hours later, we reached Queenstown, where we stayed the next two nights, just as I did earlier in the semester. The first hour or so of our Queenstown experience was highlighted by the Winter Festival Parade, which was filled with more floats than I would have expected from such a small town. The two I have pictured here (probably Mom’s pictures) are the local ice hockey team’s and the fire department’s.
Can you spot the poor kid in a Sharks uni?
Probably the most entertaining float in town, until you figured out that the guy with the mic didn’t sing anything other than “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” throughout the entire parade.
Since the sun sets around 5:00 this place and time, we didn’t do a whole lot more that day, unless you count playing Spades.
The next day, we had an underwhelming breakfast and made a day trip to nearby Glenorchy, which you might recognize from the bottom of this post.
It has just now come to my attention that this blog allows me to create galleries, which are convenient ways to show you pictures. This information would have been more welcome several months ago, but that does not mean that it is unwelcome now. Allow me to present: The Glenorchy Gallery, featuring Isengard.
That was nifty, wasn’t it? Anyway, after Glenorchy, we drove back to Queenstown, took the stupidly overpriced gondola to Bob’s Peak, and looked out over the city and the Remarkables, which is one of many mountain ranges that appeared in The Lord of the Rings.
We ate some dinner (I assume), played more cards, and went to sleep. The next morning, we drove toward Wanaka, making a quick stop at Arrowtown to take a peek at both the Chinese gold miners historic site and the filming location for the Ford of Bruinen, where Glorfindel Arwen rides Frodo across the Loudwater.
Once we finished with Arrowtown, we drove up the windy Crown Range Road and over the hill. To be continued.
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost 