Te Anau is another brilliant lake and the start of several tracks including the 4 day Keplar Track. It Is on the edge of Fiordland National Park and therefor the place to stay for access to it . Fiordland National Park has an area the size of Wales but instead of a population of 3 million it has a peak summer population of c450. It is temperate rainforest with no introduced species and a world heritage site. It covers the Southwestern fjords formed by glaciers in the last Ice Age but the Kiwis couldn't spell and now assure us that fiord is a dictionary- accepted variant spelling , althoungh I suspect only in New Zealand. The main tourist road over to Milford sound was a Keynesian job creation programme in the 1930s but it only became an all year road in the 1970s.
We went up to Mount Cook where Hilary trained for his climb up Everest but the cloud was low so we didn't get pictures and then on to Wanaka and had a wonderful afternoon round the Lake in brilliant sunshine and ran out of superlatives for stunning. Only a few places in Scotland could possibly compare.
We travelled on through a landscape of Lakes and mountains and I have inumerable pictures which blend into one. These are of Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. We went on to stay at Twizel, wonderful name. The lakes are remains of flooded glacial valleys and the Mount cook range behind is the edge of a plate being raised up.
A real find. Occupying 5 enormous barnlike structures the museum boasts over 50 vintage and classic cars, 100 tractors from 1912 on and one 1929 Spartan Biplane. There is also an enormous collection of vintage frm machinery and early household appliances. Only a man could make a collection of grease guns , but once done ot's quite interesting. I was particularly taken by the 1920s van made over to a gypsy caravan in 1972/3 but probably their most unusual exhibit is the Harley Davidson with Hearse side car, which, strangely they don't rent out as I'm sure it would be a money spinner. As usual I can't remember what I photographed although some have useful labels if you zoom.
