Queenstown and Te Anau

Saturday 19 May - On Tuesday I drove to Queenstown, and despite my intentions not to do anything silly I was soon tempted to do the Shotover Canyon Swing. After a nervous night's sleep I set off early the next day to jump off a cliff, in freefall for 60 metres at 100 mph, then swing on out a rope on a 200m arc over the cold river and jagged rocks until winched back . This was so good I did it twice! The second time I was strapped to a chair and rocked it on the back legs (which you know you should never do at home) to tumble over the edge.

The guys who run the swing are real comics, always teasing about the company cut backs and worn out ropes and letting the rope slip when you try to climb back onto the platform etc. But they had a harder job trying to persuade an American girl who got cold feet, and never did jump.
Since then it has been much gentler activities. In the afternoon I took a steam ship, (TSS Earslaw built 1912) across Lake Wakatipu to visit a high hill farm, called Walter Peak. Here we were given a very interesting explanation , and history of sheep and deer farming in these high places, including a sheep dog and shearing demonstration's by a retired farmer called Richard who claims the have the world record (longest) time to shear a sheep, . For my Welsh readers the sheep breeds are either Merino, for wool, and a cross between a Cheviot and Romney for meat, called Perrindale, which is a recognised breed in its own right. This was finished off with a delicious high tea in the farm house over looking the lake before sailing back.

That evening I drove to Te Anau, 170 kms south on Lake Manapouri. This was my first long night drive and after getting lost for an hour managed to find the right road and make good progress. Next morning I went to the Lake to take ferry then a bus (on a totally land locked road built in the 1960's to construct a hydro electric power station) then another boat to cruise in Doubtful Sound, a fiord which is cut off from roads and any other form development except one fisherman's hut which predates the national park status. The cliffs of the fiord enclose the sound and there are a few rare flightless native birds, which due to the steep terrain have remained largely inaccessible to Eupoean imported predators such as stoats, foxes and rats.

On the way back from the Sound we visited the hydro electric power station travelling down a spiral tunnel in a coach for 2 kms.

In the evening I visited the Te Anau glow worm caves which is a strange experience. The glow worms live deep in watery caves glowing like stars on the ceiling to trap passing insects, who are fooled into thinking they are in the open night sky and then, attracted by the light, become enmeshed in the sticky silk like tentacles which the glow worms hang from the cave ceiling, in the same way as a spider does a web. It is a wonder to me that there are even passing insects deep in these caves. The evolutionary development of these tricky sticky glow worms is beyond all comprehension.

Today I've driven to Dunedin to chill out intensive tourism and hopefully to find a Saturday night welcome in the pubs.