There was some more overnight rain in Te Anau, so this morning we woke to low clouds over the lake. The weather forecast was for more rain so we were pretty happy with our timing to visit Milford Sound yesterday before the clouds really closed in. We checked out of the hotel and went to the ‘Town Centre’ for some breakfast. Once again the country music soundtrack reminded us that we were still in Southland. Then it was time for the last drive around the waterfront and me hoping it won’t be another 20 years before I make it back again.
With all the cloud coming down into the lake, I put the drone up for a quick photo from about 35 Metres up.
Our plan for today was to end up in Alexandra where we’ll be staying a couple of nights with Debbie’s uncle. We had a choice of driving back through Queenstown, or via Gore. We opted for the Gore route as the driving is a bit easier and we could also drop in on Deb’s cousin on the way. We were in Gore for lunch at The Thomas Green Dining Room, which is named after Gore’s first mayor. He was somewhat of an entrepreneur and the restaurant is built on the site of the Railway Hotel the Green built in 1875. The original facade has been retained and the interior has been tastefully renovated with a modern twist on the traditional.
From Gore, we drove to Otama, and then a little further to visit Deb’s cousin. She lives on a farm about half an hour from Gore. She has 2 very energetic daughters and they run a lot of sheep and a few cows. We had some afternoon tea and a quick catch up as we could see more rain coming in.
Deb put her google maps skills to work and found us a short cut over yet another mountain range which brought us back onto the main highway near Roxburgh. We stopped along the way to take more photo’s and came across this group of curious cows.
I really enjoy the rolling hills and relatively easy driving of Southland. It is also really green and lush, as opposed to the dry more rugged landscapes of Central Otago. Just as we arrived in Alexandra there was an almighty storm, quite a rare event as Alexandra is the driest place in New Zealand with and annual rainfall of just 300 mm as opposed to Milford a mere 100 kms away that received metres of rain last year.
Until tomorrow
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