STEAMERS BEACH BACKPACKERS @ LAKEVIEW HOLIDAY PARK, 77 MANAPOURI – TE ANAU HWY, TE ANAU. $33 PER NIGHT, SINGLE ROOM WITH DESK
Sunny at first, clouding over, with about two drops of rain, becoming sunny with a stiff south-westerly wind
Was ready to go just after 9 but first had to fill in a census form. Then it was pretty much directly out to Te Anau, with a stop for petrol in Frankton, and a short break along the way. Spotted the Kingston Flyer at one of the stations.
Arrived here around midday and took a stroll through town to begin with. Menus have changed at the Italian place I had my hangman’s dinner at (Dolce Vita), and also at the Olive Tree (where Kevin was devouring his lamb shank in 2009 and where I had breakfast on my walk to the bus), where they no longer have the shanks (but roast lamb instead). Funny thing about memory even after only 4 years was how much Te Anau had been compacted; memory’s main street was much, much shorter.
Now’s the day to bitch about spending the afternoon on the computer. Managed to get 3 new blog posts scheduled, so am up to date until after Dunedin. But the amount of data this trip is producing beggars belief. The pictures may be moderately under control (and I will probably start the Bark Bay animation development tonight), but it’s everything else as well: diary, GPS. Spent quite a bit of time previewing the track data to sort out the files which were simply satellite fixes and deleting them. Then I realised that I hadn’t downloaded the tracker data for about the last two weeks (memory card shouldn’t have been full, but anyway). If I remember correctly it took me a whole month in 2009 until the wireless adapter problem was solved and the laptop was fully functional; and installing all the software on the machine in 2010 also took a couple of weeks; but this is data collection pretty much pure and simple. I suppose I can be thankful that the machine was at speed from day 1.
Dinner was at the Fat Duck, opposite the old motorcamp (which is now a Kiwi Park – as opposed to the current motorcamp which used to be a Kiwi Park) and was one lamb shank with mash and veg for $24.50. Very tender and quite tasty with the gravy and mint sauce.
Have some plans for the time up to the walk. Will try Dore’s Pass tomorrow with a 4 hour limit; Friday will be for washing, and then I will see about the Monument via bushbashing on Saturday.