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April 2004: Fiordland
During the long weekend in April it was Willem's turn to take Lisa and Nadine on a trip to the Fiordland National Park. Since they planned to do some serious tramping as far as Lake Marian, it was not appropriate for Ouma Leila to go along. They made their base at the Red Tussock Motel in Te Anau, about 290 kilometres from Dunedin, via Balclutha and Gore. From there they made daily trips to the various walking tracks nearby.
The Fiordland area is breath–takingly beautiful, with lakes, misty mountains, beech forests, babbling brooks and rushing rivers around every nook and cranny. The stop in the Eglinton Valley on the way from Te Anau to Mistake Creek was magical, with the sun just breaking through the cloud cover. The walk to Mistake Creek winds through a beech forest, with a thick carpet of moss and leaves underfoot. The crossing over Mistake Creek is along a hanging bridge — not for the faint–hearted!
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Then it was on to "The Divide" at the start of the Routeburn Track and the Greenstone Track, and an attractive walk to Key Summit — the meeting place of three major glaciated valleys. One needs quite a bit of stamina to complete this walk to the top of the peak, but our intrepid trampers did not find it too arduous a task.
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The next day trip took them north of Key Summit on the Lower Hollyford Road for another spectacular day walk to Lake Marian. The track to Lake Marion was very challenging, but this did not faze Nadine in the least. She bounded along merrily while some huffing and puffing ensued from Willem and Lisa. All the effort was well worth it, and they tarried a while at peaceful Lake Marion before tackling the walk back to the car.
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The three returned to Dunedin tired, but in very high spirits.
This was the last excursion for the year, since two days later it was time for Nadine to return to her family in Germany. Ouma Leila also returned to South Africa at the end of her two–month stay with us here in Dunedin. It was surely a grand time for us all!