After leaving Waikai we headed back to the Five Rivers Retreat and ate a wonderful home cooked meal. I had Venison and Sue had a vegetarian thing stuffed into a capsicum! Oh and meringue berries and cream for desert!
A lazy start the next day we set off at about 9:45 am and headed up to the five rivers junction. This turns and heads back to Te Anau and although not the shortest route we had not been here. 10 am stop for coffee at the only building at five rivers! (Another long day I can see) Still a nice café for sure.
Our only planned diversion today was the Mavora lakes which is a 30-40 k diversion from the main road. This is another great spot that we have to return to in some better weather. We had raced the rain all the way out here and it caught up as soon as we stopped at the lakes.
We found out later that up to 3000 people visit this spot in the summer. It is hard to imagine where they all go. We went to the end of the track and a short way into the bush which we knew became 4WD territory. It was not as difficult as we thought but as the rain set in we could see no point going much further and headed back to Te Anau.
Sue had arranged to stay with Sarah whom she had only recently met at the Homewell Lodge Freeman/Sally workshop. Sarah and her partner Dave (plus Chalky the dog) were most hospitable and we spent the two evenings drinking whiskey.
For Saturday Sarah had arranged for Graham Dainty, a local photographer and part time electrician, to come out for a drive with us. Sarah, Sue, Graham and I headed back down the Coastal road to seek out Cosy Nook and on the way back the Borland road.
We had a great day stopping at some of the “secret” photo spots and of course a café for a late lunch. The Borland Rd become another late afternoon trip and we must try to do things in a different order next time. It is also a very pretty place and we only went part way once again. Our thanks to Graham and Sarah for their time and company.
Really this marks the end of the planned fun parts of the trip. We left Te Anau this morning heading back north. Our itinerary s not programmed just to head north with stops each night. Oh except for a couple of nights with Sally and Don. Not to be considered anything less than a privilege. But after that we will be drive drive drive until we get to Auckland.
