Pictures: Lyle Such

Writing: Thu Buu

Camera: Canon 5D MkIV

Te Anau

Upon our return to Te Anau from the Routeburn Track, we stayed in this log cabin on a farm, which was guarded by this giant white beast of a dog named Rocco. He would bark at any new vehicles coming up the road into the property. He came over to investigate our arrival just as we pulled in. Lyle says he’s old and friendly, but do you see those long sharp claws sticking out of those paws. Yeah. They’ll rip your face up in one second.

This was a comfortable place to clean up, wash up, relax, eat some home cooked meals and prepare for our next trip. The owners were also so accommodating, allowing us to store our extra luggage in the main house while we were on our second trek.

New Zealand is known for their wool products. And you can’t get wool without sheep! These fluffy white guys ubiquitously dot the countryside landscape. Well, in reality, their wool is pretty dirty and more like brown or gray than white. But they are fluffy.

We tried stopping off the side of the road to take some closer-up pictures of these funny guys, but they’re more skittish than we thought they’d be. There is definitely a safe proximity zone, and once we stepped across that boundary, where ever it may be, the whole flock would move away in unison.

The best closeup sheep pictures we got were actually from the log cabin on the farm. There were a couple flocks of sheep and a few horses roaming around the farm. Their grazing ground was right behind our cabin so we saw them moving from pasture to pasture throughout the day.

Mildford Sound

With one free day in between treks, we had to visit Milford Sound, especially since we decided against hiking the Milford Sound trail. The day started out gray and rainy just as the weather forecast had predicted. But that made for a most scenic drive. Even before we arrived at the Sound, we had lost track of the countless number of waterfalls spilling down the mountains on both sides of the highway.

We had to believe the universe was looking out for us. Upon our arrival, gloomy skies cleared out making way for the most perfect blue skies adorned with a combination of puffy and wispy white clouds. Milford Sound was resplendent with glimmering waterfalls overflowing from a rainy morning. There were so many beautiful sights to absorb, and the boat’s speed was just right, giving us enough time to soak it all in. Even the captain made a remark about our luck since all the previous excursions that morning had headed out in rain, to which Lyle’s response was that he wished we could have had some of that misty weather.

And just like that, Lyle got his wish. Close to port on our return trip, an impenetrable wall of gray clouds began amassing behind us, shutting out all light in its wake as it moved quickly to overtake us, though it never did. Within the mysterious shadows of the clouds, the mountain peaks had suddenly turned dark and menacing. How cool would it have been to have been lost in the middle of that dreariness. At least we got a little taste of the darker side of Milford Sound, but I still prefer the bright, colorful, sunny experience we had. What a stark contrast a little sunlight makes.

Glow Worm Caves Te Anau

Before leaving for New Zealand, one of the most anticipated activities on our agenda was to see the glow worms. We had booked a private photography tour at a private glow worm cave our first day in the country. But due to our unfortunate beginning, we had to forego that opportunity. With a free afternoon after the completion of the Kepler Track, Lyle and I caught a boat across Lake Te Anau to a smaller glow worm cave.

It was an interesting experience, not the actual seeing of the glow worms but rather the tourism industry in New Zealand in general. First off, New Zealand is overrun with Chinese tourists who normally travel in large, loud groups and seem only interested in taking a selfie at whatever spot their guides say is worth a Facebook or Instagram post. At the airports, signs are written first in English and then in Chinese. There are special signs in the women’s restroom showing the proper way to use the toilet. Outside the airports around the trash bins, social etiquette signs such as no spitting and no littering were prominently displayed in Chinese.

On the ferry over to the glow worm cave, the safety instructions were first played in Chinese and then in English, as the majority on the tour were Chinese. Once we arrived on the island and ushered into the greeting lobby, the tour guides opened welcoming remarks and instructions first in Chinese and then in English again. The larger lobby was designated for Mandarin speaking guests, and the rest of us were squeezed into a much smaller area on the side for our orientation. It was interesting to see how much the NZ tourism industry caters to Chinese nationals. I don’t blame them. Chinese tourists are an easy, dependable, fathomless source of income because there are so many of them.

Wanaka

I came across a picture of this beautiful tree in a travel magazine before leaving for New Zealand. The article highlighted how Instagram has made this lonesome tree a popular, must-see selfie spot. But the Instagram crowd is not always the most courteous, and because the competition for the next viral selfie is always on, a tourist climbed up the tree, consequently breaking off a branch, which prompted the NZ government to install this sign on how to be a respectful tourist. Ironically, without the violating incident, the magazine would not have written about this unique tree, and we would not have known to stop by for a brief visit.

I know I’ve already written about the flocks of Chinese tourists in New Zealand. I thought that perhaps this little tree would have eluded the bigger tours’ agenda because there‘s not much else around. But I was wrong. When we pulled into the parking lot, a couple of big, long buses were already parked there. The sign above was written in two languages, English and Chinese. Number four says remove all rubbish. As I was heading over to take a better look at the sign, a couple of Chinese guys who had just seen the sign walked past me going the other direction. One guy slowed down a bit, quick snuck some looks about, then bent down and tucked a small wrapper underneath some rocks. The guy definitely knew what he was doing. Ugh! So I walked up to him and pointed to the wrapper. I asked if he forgot to put his trash in the bin because the sign says not to throw trash everywhere. He ignored me and walked up to a larger group of about 10 people. I just followed him and kept telling him that he dropped his trash. At this point a couple other people in his group looked my way and must have heard me. He was getting red in the face but still pretended like he didn’t understand, so loudly, to his whole group, I said something to the effect of, “I know your Chinese government makes you take classes on how to be respectful tourists before you leave China, and you’re throwing trash on the beach. Your government would be ashamed of you.”

Lake Pukaki

The road to the national park curved along the banks of this gorgeous, powder-blue lake for a long, long time. On our way out, we stopped and dipped our feet in. The water temperature was so nice, and we were quite tempted to take a swim. But the thought of having to take off wet clothes and drying up was just too much. Besides, we still had a long drive to get to Christchurch, our stop for the night. Coincidentally, we all sort-of matched the color of the lake. The next day, we parted ways with Anh Vu at the airport. His adventures in NZ were done, but we had one more special place to go before we could rightly wrap up our NZ journey.