Advertisement
Published: April 3rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
So back to Christchurch for a few days, and the start of another road trip, this one being our longest to date. As we had rushed off last time, we decided to spend a little more time seeing the sights around Christchurch before hitting the road. We began by going punting, which was nice and relaxing, and pretty cheap. We had a punter from the UK guiding us, and Julia got to drive for a bit, which was slightly scary. We found an indoor crazy golf centre which was very fun...it had lots of crazy courses - exactly like it said on the tin.
After Christchurch our next stop was Dunedin - a rather long journey which took up the majority of the day. The best way to describe Dunedin is very hilly, and driving a 25 year old camper van it took a while to get anywhere. Dunedin is actually home to the worlds steepest residential street, Baldwin Street. Julia managed to run 1/3 up (spectacularly) and then ran the rest of the way after a break. The other main activity that Dunedin had to offer was the Yellow eyed Penguins, which are one of the rarest penguins in
the world. We thought the best and most cost effective place to do this was a reserve, appropriately called Penguin Place. It was the malting season for the penguins so the they just stood there stationary most of the time, but it was still very cool to see these unique birds. After this we went to the penguin hospital, which was ace.
Anyway, off to Invercargill next for just a day, as there was nothing really to do there. We were originally planning on a trip to Stuart Island, but decided it would be far too much of an expensive venture when you add up all of the flights/ferrys and the accomodation. After our night in a gypsy campsite, we carried on our trip.
This time we were heading toward Milford Sounds, via Te Anau. The drive was lovely (but no mountains got in the way today). We arrived in Te Anau in the afternoon and decide to go on a trip into a glow worm cave. It was pretty awesome (no pictures of here as we got told off for trying to take them). The trip to Milford from Te Anau takes a few hours, so we
headed off straight after the glowworm tour, so we would be in time to catch our early morning cruise. This journey was very odd as there is basically a 200km, well-maintained road, that leads to a harbour. There is nothing else before or after, and no industry there other than cruises. We arrived fairly late, and found somewhere to stay ready for our early start. In the morning we got up and fortunately the cruise came with a free breakfast, so there was nothing to but just go and get on the boat.
Milford itself was amazing, we got to see dolphins and seals, and the boat drove under a large waterfall (Dan got soaked) before going to an underwater observatory where we saw marine life that you would not normally see until 500m underwater (but because of various conditions certain coral and other creatures come to more shallow waters in Milford). Following our Milford experience we set off for Queenstown.......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.035s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.016s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
kathryn
non-member comment
Pro punters hey!
Hi both, Perhaps when you return if you don't get a job straight away you could set up a punting business at stratford upon avon - bet you would make a mint!!!! Love the photos and the blogg - keep it coming. Love aunty k xxx