-- FromTe Anau to Timaru

The road tracklog 
From Te Anau to Timaru
from 2010/10/12 to 2010/10/17 

From Te Anau to Tuatapere the scenic road roves along the Lake Manapouri then in a broad valley of pastures to sheep with always in prospect the snow-caped summit' mountains, dramatic.

On the move I was diverted to see the Clifden Suspension Bridge inaugurated in 1899, now unused.

In Tuatapere I made the 10am pause at Yesteryears Cafe and Museum where I tasted an excellent coffee with creamy milk and with scones with cream & jam. It came back to me a sentence by Oscar Wilde in "The Importance being Earnest" -Don't touch my muffins-

Taking again the road I stopped lengthily at McCracken's Rest on Te Waewae Bay where Hector's Dolphins are normally visible. Alas they did not deny to appear for me. I lunched in Riverton at the Beach House of a seafood soup, highly recommendable.

I finished this splendid sunny day at Stirling Point in Bluff which with the Reinga Cape in the North of North Island is equivalent to -From Land's End to John O' Groats- I retraced my steps to Invercargill to bivouac in the local Top10.

The following day I left Invercargill under a dubious sky for touring in The Catlins which extends up to Dunedin by taking the SH92 wavering between mountains, jagged forests, rugged coasts and fair sand beaches. Several days are necessary to explore this natural wilderness. I did a drastic selection by privileging fauna, sea lions, fur seals, hector's dolphins and yellow-eyed penguins. Alas once again I was not rewarded for my choices. Admittedly landscapes are stunning. The most favourable season is from December to January. My first stop was in Waipapa to see one of the rare lighthouses builds out of wood in 1884 after the terrible shipwreck of the SS Tararua.

A few kilometres further by a gravel road I reached Slope Point which is geographically the NZ's most southerly point.

Futher in the east Curio Bay has fossilized trees dating back from the Jurassic era. In the absence of other species I observed endemic birds. I drove other incursions into the coast for vain researches.

My last visit was in Nugget Point where the rock vertical formations beaten by waves are dramatic.

It remained me to join Dunedin to bivouac in a cabin like a monk's cell.

I stayed one night more in Dunedin to visit Otago Peninsula where many endangered species are protected. The peninsula is accessible by a road curving between mountain and sea thirty kilometres away from the city centre. I concentrated my visit at the Albatross Centre of which rooms present the reasons of disappearance of the sea birds and solutions brought to cure it. At outside only a multitude of seagulls and an no-identified bird were visible.

To be ensured to see penguins with the yellow eyes I was going to the Yellow-eyed Penguin Conservation Reserve where during 1:30 I walked with a guide in an huge park progressing in tunnels to reach observation posts of the small creatures breeding their eggs. There were also sea lions and other birds. I was very happy of my choice.

I finished this day at the Otago Museum with the inevitable room devoted to the Maori and Polynesian culture. But the climax of the museum is incontestably the room dedicated to the fossilized animals at the time of the catastrophe at the end of cretaceous at the time of the impact of a giant asteroid in the Yucatan peninsula, 65 mya, with the disappearance of dinosaurs, other giant animals as well as majority of sea animals.

I arrived in the late morning in Oamaru with a gloomy weather and a prickly cold. The sun did not make any appearance. The city knew its heyday at the end of the 19th century with forwarding to the United Kingdom of cattle and sheep carcasses in refrigerated steamers. The money poured and was worth to its some beautiful Victorian and Edwardian buildings  in Italian style. Today it is languished by attracting tourists amateurs of architecture and art. The Criterion Hotel was built in 1877 by local architect. The Harbour Board in 1876 inaugurated the Venetian style. Other buildings in particular Banks, Post office and Opera House graced the city and testify to its past. Some buildings are occupied by galleries such Grainstore exhibiting objects and costumes of the Great Storm Show in 1868. Finally close to the Railway Station a mural of the era attests the activity of the city.

Oamaru is also renowned by the Bushy Beach where in the evening about 5:30pm Yellow-eyed Penguins arrive. In one hour I saw ten landing. I showed two of them taken with a tele-lens of 280 then cut. It was very touching to see these endangered birds coming back every evening where they were born.

The Mt Cook, Aoraki for Maori, is with its 3755m high, the tallest peak of Australasia. It was overcome at the Christmas Day 1884 by local climbers. Sir Ed's -Edmund Hillary- carried out the south ridge in 1948 with Tenzing Norgay before being the first to overcome the Everest. By covered weather I give some pictures of this mighty summit in all its states.

The day before the weather forecast by the i-Site in Mt Cook was very pessimistic, heavy rain and violent wind for the night and the next day. Indeed I left Glentanner in the rain but heading towards the coast it ceased and the sun made its appearance. In Lake Tekapo after the 10am pause I visited the Church of the Good Shepherd renowned for its weddings.

The town of Timaru does not have great attraction, the local museum exhibits a replica airplane which would have been the first to be flown!

Aigantighe Art Gallery, pronounced -egg and tie which into Gaelic means at home- exposes some paintings worthy of interest such that by Keith Patterson influenced by P. Picasso.

My stay in NZ touches at its end, I must say that the art of cooking is null -there are English- It was impossible to eat a steak, here one serves a burger like at McDo where a special Angus is better than all that can be eaten nowhere elsewhere.

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