Saturday in Wanaka

Dinner here at our lodging is now over, and it's time to give some coverage to the plane ride to Milford Sound and back.
The weather on the coast was OK, but expected to turn into rain about midday.  The normal routine would have been to fly from Wanaka to Milford, take a 2 hour boat cruise of the Sound, then return by air to Wanaka.  But with the deteriorating weather the aircraft operator (named Tom-O.....a Kiwi nickname for his last name: Thompson) said it wouldn't work to take the boat ride.  Instead, they would fly us over the Southern Alps, making a pass by Mt Aspiring, and along the length of the Sound, then land at the Milford airport for a brief walk-a-bout, then return to Wanaka by a somewhat different route.  So that is what we did.  It was a smooth ride, and the view from 9,500 ft was pretty spectacular.

The pilot explained to us that so much fresh water flowed into the Sound, carrying sediment, etc. that the fresh water, being lighter than salt water, floated on the top, and the sediment blocked light from penetrating deeper.  As a result, many sea animals came much higher in the water than they normally would.

The trip back to Wanaka was just ahead of the rain showers.  Susan had been dropped off (by Simon) at a quilt store, and we returned there to pick her up.  We then went into town for lunch and a visit to the fair that was going on.  We went to where the sheep dogs were being judged, but got there a little to late.  BUT, we did see our host of our farm stay Peter (aka P L) still in the area.  We were able to visit with him, and found out that he and his dog had been graded 97.5 out of 100, but that was not high enough to win.  It was, however, the highest grade of anyone on the South Island (what he called "the locals").  

We had group dinner this evening here at our accommodations with Jessica grilling steaks and salmon over the barbecue pit, plenty of salad and other side dishes.  Following dinner, Simon went over our plans for tomorrow.  It's over Haast Pass and down into the rain forest.  Looks like a 51 mile ride on the bikes, weather permitting.  That may be an issue.  Not totally unexpected since we are going into a rain forest on that side.  We'll see.  It may be a van ride.  Simon says of the 25 or so tours he has led in NZ he has never before done curling, and he has no intention of doing it again!  I'll let you know from Wilderness Lodge, our destination for the next two nights.   Jim