Southern sojourn

Listening to: Farewell to the world (disc 2)-Crowded House


Apologies if you don't like travel blogs (who are "you" anyway?). The next few posts will be travel content heavy.


Since returning on Saturday I have found myself indulging in two familiar post journeying habits.


1. Thinking a day/week/month ago I was exploring Te Anau/Milford/Fox etc, and wishing I still was. Its been a week already since we went to Doubtful Sound but it simultaneously feels like yesterday and years ago. I missed not being able to share it with Fi. R+K are great travelling companions nonetheless.



2. Waking up in the middle of the night thinking I am still in a motor camp somewhere, acting accordingly (i.e. covering up naked spouses because "the general public area is just outside the door!") and being confused as to how the camp staff have managed to relocate all my possessions. Fi rearranging the bedroom while I was away definitely exacerbated this tendency.

Te Anau, Doubtful and Milford

After flying to Dunedin on Monday morning, we headed to Te Anau which was to be our base camp for three days. Lake Te Anau and the hills behind it showed us three very different faces.

Monday 12 March. Cloudy and moody in the late evening.

Tuesday 13 March. Dappled by morning sun.
Wednesday 14 March. Cool and snowy
Doubtful Sound showed us a cool and evocative vista on Tuesday.
From Wilmot Pass
Hall Arm (I think)
Crooked Arm, drifting with the cruise boat engines off to give us only the sound of the erm, sound. Rain on the water and distant waterfalls.

The journey to Milford Sound on Wednesday was an experience in itself, with mucho doubting as to whether we could penetrate the snow and reach our cruise. We were stopped for a while as the road to the Homer Tunnel was cleared of snow. When we got there it looked like this:


Still, the snow meant we got to see Mitre Peak looking like this, with dozens if not hundreds of temporary waterfalls pouring down the hills and cliffs around. We photographed the first couple of spectacular falls, then realised they were everywhere. I love the way you can see the southerly wind generating cloud on the lee side of the peak in this picture. Science you can see!

We had trouble dealing with the scale of Milford Sound. This is a cliff. The two white things at the bottom are cruise boats, included to try and demonstrate the scale. The waterfall in the middle falls a few hundred metres before dissapating and disappearing into thin air.

Thats enough photos for this post. More to come in the next few days.

Musical manouverings

Having a decent stereo in the car made for some cool association moments. The Violent Femmes singing "Dance mother****er dance" as we reached Te Anau. Def Leppard on the road to Manapouri. Queen's "Dont stop me now" as we came back from Milford. The Killers "Mr Brightside" as we mushed through the snow heading for Milford. The live version of "Fingers of Love" by Crowded House on a damp and murky West Coast road north of Franz Josef. The Darkness "Growing on me" as we meandered past Lake Wakitipu. Fleetwood Mac's "Go your own way" as we crossed the divide between Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" all over Christchurch.

Its not about length baby

Maybe, but sheeit I have been making some long posts lately.

Back to life, back to reality

Interviewed for one of the jobs I am going for at work today. I thought it went OK. I have an interview mode that few of my friends get to see where I speak loudly, clearly and confidently. I hate talking myself up though.

Netball last night was fun. Fi and I agreed on the way in that an easy meaningless game against an opposition we could stomp was just what we needed to get back into the groove after a couple of weeks off. Although the overheated opposition defender was kinda wierd. Methinks she may have a perception gap between her imagined skill and actual skill.

Saw Hot Fuzz tonight. Brilliant. I loved the absurd use of, um, absurdity for its own sake. Smart dumb fun.

How come, when my mobile phone is running low on charge, it emits a loud beep every five minutes to remind you it is low on charge, which just reduces the charge even further? Annoying flaw in an otherwise perfectly satisactory piece of kit.

For much of the time in the southwest we were out of cellphone coverage (something I intended to/tried to blog about at the time had the internet connection in Fox Glacier not been so disfunctional).

I was undecided then if it was a blessing or a curse, and still am.