The trip has been amazing so far and there are several good reasons for it. One of the biggest reasons is all the care that Robin put into planning it. When you have great activities planned, it is, relatively, easy to have a great trip and Robin planned a LOT of great activities. Unexpected treasures happen when you don’t have things planned and the last minute things you decide to do are wonderful. Today we had not, one, not two, but five such treasures!
Let me start off by sharing that today was a travel day. The only thing officially on our agenda was picking up the rental car and driving a little over two hours to get to Te Anau. We decided to make a couple of stops along the way.
Our first stop was recommended by a blogger: The Hunny Shop. The guidebook said it had wonderful home made honey, cools crafts made by the owner and called it a must stop place. Clearly they have a different idea of what a “must stop” place is like. The honey wasn’t great and was overpriced. Come to think of it that describes the crafts as well. We both felt the stop was a bust and as long as we were already stopped, why not take a walk around town. That was the treasure part.
It’s a very small town. We walked to a small park and there, under a tree, was a Peter Rabbit village that was charming. Both of us were captivated. A little bit away from the tree was a lovely little church. All in all the town was charming. Below is a gallery of the Peter Rabbit Village.
Our next stop was an art gallery. We didn’t have big expectations about it and, sure enough, when we went in there were some nice pieces but nothing special. Until we got into the back room. There were examples of work by someone with a very interesting art form. He takes pencils and leaves a large exposed amount of graphite. He then carves that graphite into a single letter and lines the pencils up to make phrases. They are amazing. He also has a book with some of his favorite phrases including this one which I liked: “Be yourself. People don’t have to like you, and you don’t have to care.” There was also a wonderful sculpture of a horse. Again, a real treat.
Then we arrived at The Te Anau Lodge. I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever about the lodge. With a name like that I expected a nice clean, unremarkable room and, as we drove up to it, that is exactly what it looked like. Then we went inside. The first two things I noticed was a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at the desk, and across from the desk was a confessional. When I asked about it, the manager informed me that it was actually the elevator to get the second floor! (I never did get around to opening it, we have to stop there again to pick up luggage we left there (more on that later) so I’ll try to remember to take a picture of it. The lodge used to be a convent. Matt (who we didn’t meet but I wish we had) bought the convert and turned it into the lodge with quirky things like the elevator and keeping the convent part of the theme. For example, we stayed in the Mother Superior Room.
He also did interesting things with the grounds. There is a giant chess set, swings, an old tractor and some auxiliary structures that you could also rent to stay in, including a railroad car, a church that he transported to the site, a small carousel, and what I can best describe as a gypsy wagon. It was incredible. As it turns out Matt wanted to create an even bigger experience opportunity for people so he also bought a 1935 boat and an old plane. He ended up selling the boat and Kim, the manager, strongly recommended that we take the Champaign cruise at 6:00. Clearly, we couldn’t say no and booked it. Here is a gallery of pictures of the Te Anau Lodge.
The boat trip was also a treasure. The boat was made in Scotland in 1935. There is a wonderful long story of how it got to New Zealand which is in a book one of the owners wrote (which I had to, and did buy). I asked them to sign the book and the inscriptions they put in were wonderful. The whole cruise was amazing. The boat was interesting, our fellow travelers were fun (all from North America). The crew passionate and lovely, the champagne and snacks delicious (including fudge made special for the boat). We also sailed back to the beach and had a bagpipe concert by Adam the captain (and one of the owners). If you are in Te Anau you HAVE to take the tour (and tell them DavidSpiro recommend it, I told them about the blog). A gallery with pictures of the boat.
Now that really would have been enough for an amazing day and we had one more stop: Te Anau has a bird sanctuary which includes a couple of rare birds such as the Takahe. It was quite a walk from the boat to the bird sanctuary and we were arriving near dusk. We saw someone leaving who warned us that she hadn’t seen anything. While we were discouraged, we felt we were there and had to try and we trudged on where we saw THREE Takahe’s! We also saw a rare Blue Duck and I got my wings (I guess someone must have been ringing a bell). It was a long walk back to the lodge (where more chocolate chip cookies were waiting for me) and we didn’t get back until after 10:00. Gallery pictures of the bird sanctuary.
The moral of the story is that you have to go on adventures and be open to the fact that beautiful treasures may be all around you. Perhaps even many in a single day!. Tomorrow we plan on going on a small hike and then an overnight boat to Doubtful Sound. I can’t wait.
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