Enjoy the silence

The alarm this morning was the captain switching the motor back on.

It was still very dark outside, and on our way to breakfast we could only make out shapes nearby. Moody mountains, only slightly backlit. I would happily stare at this scenery all day.

We hurried over breakfast – it was buffet-style: cereals, fruit and cooked breakfast with juice and tea/coffee – and went to hang around outside our cabin. The walkway is protected by the deck above and so it’s a great place to take photos without getting too wet… for the rain we were expecting had arrived during the night. The arrival of daylight gave us a few minutes of pink hue in the sky.

Overnight, the whole place was transformed. Where yesterday we were looking at hills and rock faces, this morning we had literally thousands of waterfalls. Small, long, short, fat, thin, slow and furious.

It was majestical; we didn’t know where to look. We kept hopping from port side to starboard side.

From Precipice Cove, we headed back into the sound and popped into Crooked Arm. The waterfall there was mighty impressive.

The engine stopped, and we were able to enjoy five minutes of pure silence. Something that is so rare to get nowadays. Nothing but an amazing landscape to admire, the sound of rain and our thoughts. Priceless.

Too soon, we got back to Deep Cove. As we got off the boat, the whole crew was ashore bidding us farewell.

We got the bus back to West Arm, the journey seemed a lot quicker this morning, and the lack of commentary on the bus helped as well.

Waiting for our boat back to Manapouri, I found a little track sheltered by large trees from the drizzle and amused myself by taking close-up photos. Everything comes to life with the rain.

As we got away from West Arm. The rain slowly stopped and we were able to get on the top deck.

The bus waiting for us took us to Te Anau where we’d get our transfer bus back to Queenstown. With 30 minutes on our hands, we went to Takahe Café for lunch, and used their good connection to download a couple more BBC programmes.

The journey back to Queenstown took us back via the same road as yesterday. We’re becoming extremely familiar with that road, and we now know all it’s nooks and crannies.

Our customary stop was in Athol. Rather than go to the café, I explored the other side of the main street. I walked around the small wooden-clad Anglican Church and the latest oddball fence – this one being a bike fence.

A mystery has been solved. There are many more sheep around nowadays, and that’s because the farmers have been bringing them down from the mountains, with the sheep dogs earning their keep.

We got back to the AirBnB just before 4pm. I have been fascinated by the gold rush, and then the early settlers and you don’t have to dig too deep to bring some of these great stories to life. Our taxi driver told us that his mother was from London. She came over with her mother in 1918, age 10, to be re-united with her father after six years. Once in New Zealand, she had to work at her father’s store and was told she wouldn’t go back to school. Undeterred, she became a successful business owner.

We spent the evening doing the washing and sorting our bags out. We’ve leaving the comfort (and the views) of our AirBnB tomorrow for life back on the road.