Blogs from Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

One morning we stumbled upon some fur seals. Had to give them space so not to piss 'em off.... read more

Fjiordland and Milford Sound; Drove out to Te Anau, which is a really nice small lake side town. Then I decided to head further into Fjiordland and up to Milford Sound for a cruise. This was probably one of the hardest drives I've ever done, because its such amazing scenery its really hard to keep you eyes on the road. Eventually got to Milford Sound, which was a bit foggy unfortunately, then chilled out while I waited for my cruise. Went on the cruise which was amazing! Probably the most amazing landscape I've ever seen despite the sideways rain. The sides of the fjord are completely vertical, including Mitre peak, the highest sea cliff in the world. On the way out to the edge of the sea the weather was pretty horrible but luckily it cleared ... read more

Written Wednesday 16th March Left Invercargill in the pouring rain on Tuesday morning – and started my tour of The Catlns area – (coast and inland area at the very bottom of NZ) – it was cold and blustery as I visited at lighthouse and the site of one of the worst shipwrecks in NZ history- but there was hope as I could see the odd bit of blue sky and there on the far side of the beach I sighted a sealion through the binocs- more to come . Next stop a fossilised forest on an edge down the cliffs - easy to get to with stairs down there and lo and behold a little yellow eyed penguin sitting on its nest too hidden in the bush. This is a great example of a fossilised ... read more

The above panorama is of Porpoise Bay, somewhere in there are some Hectors Dolphins. February 20th - 25th 2011 Stewart Island Well, the kiwi were as elusive as the kea, not that we were really surprised. We had a good time on Stewart Island, but it wasn't as good as we expected. I think it was the weather more than anything, it's hard to do much outside in the rain! Rain apparently falls on Stewart Island, or Rakiura, about 265 days a year. Halfmoon Bay gets about 1600mm, and the south and west of the island can get up to 5000mm a year. No wonder the island is covered with lush rainforest! The Maori name for the island, Rakiura, came about when Te Rakitamau, the second son of Tukekawa crossed Te Ara a Kewa, or Foveaux ... read more

29 January 2011 Prior to falling asleep we had agreed that, providing it was light, whoever awoke first would wake the other and we would make the most of the day and get moving. The call of nature woke me at about 6:10am (I must be getting to that age) and so I woke Lou, and we made the short walk from the van to the rather grotty public convenience. With that taken care of we got in the van and started moving as quickly as we could, mainly so the engine could provide us with some warmth, as both of us had cold feet from the damp grass despite the short distance we had walked. We only had one stop in mind this morning before we reached Dunedin, and it wasn’t far down the ... read more