This is actually true. And I have a picture to prove it with.
Sandflies are such lovely friendly creatures.. I’m sure their bites are just playful ones. The important thing is not to scratch when you get bitten. Also, and I dunno if this is truly true – but it certainly seems that the longer you are here the less they annoy you. Which is why it’s always good to travel with tourists.. they get munched :)
So today Laura and I had a trip on Doubtful Sound. It’s a beautiful place, and a lot less crowded than Milford. The weather was overcast and a little rainy. Not a particularly uncommon occurrence for a place that gets 6m or so of rain a year.
Back in 19somethingOrOther they wanted to build a power station on the lake. This meant they would have to raise the level of the lake by 30!m. There was political pressure brought – and they conceded to only a raise of 6m. More pressure came on – and it (very fortunately) became an election issue. The arrogant ;) government lost – and the hydro scheme was only permitted to go ahead if it would operate within the natural limits of the lake.
yay.
And it’s a pretty damn cool power plant – buried deep in the heart of a mountain. The water falls 170m or so down a hole they drilled in the mountain, powers the turbines, and then out a 10km long hole out to the sea.
Will be back that way again – I’d like to do the Dusky Walk at somepoint. 6-10 days (depending on weather) of hiking through mud. Sounds great eh?
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This guy was pretty damn clever. There was some law which (they changed quickly) which disallowed building a structure which was built on the land. However, this guy built this structure on top of piles he drove into the lake bed. Quite Legal. DOC took him to court, lost, and has to leave the place here. Personally I think it’s quite nicely done – a nice quirky addition to the lake. He is not allowed to use it for accommodation, nor sell it – nor anything other than the stated purpose of crayfishing.
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Incidentally – crayfish caught here are put on ice and wake up 12 hours later in Japan. Good for global warming.
In the middle of the left hand picture is a small white speck. It is in fact a Fiordland crested penguin which are now an endangered species.
Sometimes.. it’s things like this that make me feel like I need to get myself a digital SLR with a funky zoom.
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