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Dave was invited by our New Zealand friend Eric to come with him to his cabin on Lake Alexandrina. Eric is a fly fisherman who fished with Dave during our trip to NZ in 2001, and Eric and his wife went with us to Stewart Island last month. To get to Lake Alexandrina, you drive north from Dunedin about three hours and then drive west for about two hours. It is near Lake Tekapo, a much bigger and better known lake. The first photo gives a bit of an overview of the area from an observatory. Lake Tekapo is on the right, and Lake Alexandrina is in the center of the photo.
Next is a monument to sheep dogs, particularly one sheep dog who used to steal sheep for his master.
In the photo below, a small lake called Lake MacGregor is in the foreground, with Lake Tekapo in the background. The mountain range is called the Two Thumbs range. This view looks east with the evening sun behind, and the clouds are pouring over the range from the ocean behind the mountains. This happened two of the nights Dave was there, and he took two other photos showing the clouds flowing over the mountains.
Dave and Eric fished from a rowboat and also from the side of Lake Alexandrina. The photo below was taken at 8 a.m. Note how still the water is. Normally it is very windy like it is in most of NZ. (There's a little bit of wind power here, but lots of opposition to new wind farms. It seems like a natural form of energy generation in this windy place.) In the background is Hell's Gate Mountain.
Dave thinks he might paint the next two photos of Lake Alexandrina because they are so pretty.
Now, for you bird lovers, here are two black swans on Lake Alexandrina. There are two kinds of swans in NZ, black swans and mute swans, both of which were introduced. Mute swans were originally from Britain and are white. Black swans were introduced from Australia. Both species have thrived in NZ, and black swans have become so numerous they sometimes have to be "reduced," according to the bird book we have. I wonder how "reduction" is done.
A pair of crested grebes was nesting close to Eric's cabin, and Dave watched them leave behind their egg and fish together. They are amazing swimmers. One would go down, then the second one would go down right afterwards, and then they would pop up maybe 100 yards away. They have a cool crest on their heads, which you can sort of see in the photo below. They are fairly rare.
About ten days ago I had to do some interviews in Riverton and Tuatapere, two towns on the south coast, west of Invercargill. The interviews were three days apart, so in between them, we went up into the mountains and stayed at Manapouri, one of the towns on the eastern edge of Fjordland and one of the gateways to the fjords. We didn't actually take a trip to the fjords, just got to the jumping off place. But it was still very beautiful. Dave spent a day fishing on the Whitestone River and caught two very big fish, so he was a happy camper. The first photo is Riverton and the mouth of the Oreti River (just past the rocky headland in the photo).
Here are some photos of the southwest coast, with one that includes our trusty Honda Civic, one of the roomiest small cars we've ever had (a four door hatchback is a great arrangement). Of course, it has the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car. I still cannot walk to the correct door of the car. I always walk to the wrong side. I've learned that if I'm with Dave, I should just watch where he's going and walk to the other door, even though it feels wrong. I'm doing pretty well driving on the left side of the road, it's just the pesky car doors I can't seem to get straight.
The next two photos show the approach to the mountains, where the farmland ends and the mountains begin. These are the first mountains we'd seen since leaving Seattle, and it was interesting to see how much we had missed mountains, despite all the beautiful scenery we've seen.
The next four photos show Lake Manapouri, which is the gateway to a fjord called Doubtful Sound. To get to Doubtful Sound you take a boat across Lake Manapouri (much further than the distance you can see in the photos because the lake takes a turn off to the left around that headland in the first photo), a bus ride over a mountain pass, and then a boat into the Sound. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful of all the fjords, with lots of wildlife. Someday we'll do that trip.
Next is a monument to sheep dogs, particularly one sheep dog who used to steal sheep for his master.
In the photo below, a small lake called Lake MacGregor is in the foreground, with Lake Tekapo in the background. The mountain range is called the Two Thumbs range. This view looks east with the evening sun behind, and the clouds are pouring over the range from the ocean behind the mountains. This happened two of the nights Dave was there, and he took two other photos showing the clouds flowing over the mountains.
Dave and Eric fished from a rowboat and also from the side of Lake Alexandrina. The photo below was taken at 8 a.m. Note how still the water is. Normally it is very windy like it is in most of NZ. (There's a little bit of wind power here, but lots of opposition to new wind farms. It seems like a natural form of energy generation in this windy place.) In the background is Hell's Gate Mountain.
Dave thinks he might paint the next two photos of Lake Alexandrina because they are so pretty.
Now, for you bird lovers, here are two black swans on Lake Alexandrina. There are two kinds of swans in NZ, black swans and mute swans, both of which were introduced. Mute swans were originally from Britain and are white. Black swans were introduced from Australia. Both species have thrived in NZ, and black swans have become so numerous they sometimes have to be "reduced," according to the bird book we have. I wonder how "reduction" is done.
A pair of crested grebes was nesting close to Eric's cabin, and Dave watched them leave behind their egg and fish together. They are amazing swimmers. One would go down, then the second one would go down right afterwards, and then they would pop up maybe 100 yards away. They have a cool crest on their heads, which you can sort of see in the photo below. They are fairly rare.
