Recovery Mode in Te Anau & Manapouri

Saturday 7 February

A quiet day after the long drive - lots of rain and grey skies so we chilled all morning, headed into Te Anau just before lunch to check out the Hospice op shop and a few other stores. Louis found a pie shop that was apparently Miles Better... so that was lunch sorted for 3/4 of us.

On the way back we went to visit the Takahe at the bird sanctuary and met one family with their chonky brown chick. Then we swung by the "Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World" in Manapouri. Nickie and I had a lovely time chatting with Phil, the custodian on duty at the wee bookshop - he was from Devon, spotted our accents and loved a good chin wag about Southern England. Ruth Shaw, the bookshop owner has written 3 books which she sells here. We heard an interview on RNZ with her last time we stayed in Manapouri - absolutely fascinating and inspiring.

The colourful, bunting hung Children's Bookshop had a low, child size door and was packed with cool friendly creatures hiding on the shelves. There was a darling lending library where kids could collect to a free book or toy to take away with them and return on their next visit, whenever that may be.

I had a stroll down to Lake Manapouri from the campsite and watched the clouds gradually enshroud the mountains all around.

Nickie joined me and we wandered back past the timid alpaca, had an early dinner then spent a while on our onward itinerary. Early night as we had an early start planned for Sunday.