The Last Days of Summer

Leaving the stunning Lakes Hawea and Wanaka behind we headed south west to Te Anau. Amazingly we managed to coordinate itineraries with friends from home and fellow travelers, Andy and Clare. Much swapping of stories and wine drinking ensued leaving us going our separate ways talking of detoxing. Needless to say we haven't started yet!

From there we spent two days cruising two of the main sounds of Fiordland. Milford Sound, in particular was breathtakingly spectacular with sheer rock walls going straight up (and down) for over a mile in places. Doubtful Sound, although less spectacular is home to the largest bottlenose dolphins in the world that obligingly put on a dramatic show. The area is renowned for the amount of rain it gets (Doubtful Sound only has 65 dry days a year) so we were incredibly lucky to see them both on not just dry but glorious days. The good weather also meant we could put our London Underground training to good use securing the best seats on the sun deck!

Our next stop was Dunedin or 'the other Edinburgh'. It was a nice little town but it was a bit surreal to find ourselves back in Morningside. Just outside Dunedin, on the Otago Peninsula we spent a morning looking at royal albatrosses, rare yellow eyed penguins and getting very close (too close) to some New Zealand fur seals.

After a long drive up the coast we arrived in Kaikoura. The area has a reputation for amazing marine life and we were not disappointed. We watched two sperm whales as they came up for air and then a few minutes later dived back down giving us picture perfect views of their tails. We also watched as both common and dusky dolphins swam round and round the whales seemingly just for fun. The whales didn't think it was fun.

The next day it was our turn to be surrounded by dolphins. Trussed up in wet suits once again, we flung ourselves into the water amongst a huge pod of over a hundred dusky dolphins. We flailed about and sang through our snorkels, which is apparently meant to get their attention. Most just swam past but it was still amazing as they were so close you could have touched them. On a couple of occasions though a dolphin found our antics interesting or perhaps stupid enough to stop, make eye contact and have a closer look which was pretty special. One dolphin even touched Alastair with its fin although it was probably more a desperate attempt to get away than anything more meaningful.

Before saying a sad goodbye to New Zealand we spent a lovely day with friends, Alistair, Angela and their beautiful newborn daughter, Heidi and also managed to squeeze in a day a Rotorua looking at various multi coloured, foul smelling volcanic things and a couple of days in a lovely house on Waiheke Island just off Auckland.

We are currently on the beautiful island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia where we have been trying to soak up some last minute sun amid some epic thunderstorms. Rain aside the water is warm and crystal clear and there are fish everywhere which is driving Alastair crazy because so far he has only caught one. Yesterday, in an isolated burst of activity we went swimming with stingrays. In complete contrast to the dolphins these guys could not have found us more interesting, although that probably had something to do with the fish we were feeding them. They were all over us so it was a good job they are beautifully soft and don't have any teeth!

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