Blogs from Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 20

Another lovely day in New Zealand, Picton is a small sea-side town, it's main purpose is that it's the ferry port to Wellington I guess but it's no Rosyth, it's full of nice boats and small yachts, picturesque vila's on the front and a street of nice cafe's and local shops. After more than 4 weeks of on the road travel we're knackered and looking forward to a rest in Fiji, we've decided to spend 18 nights there now and the plan is to do as little as possible, sind a nice wee beach lie in the sun, catch up on some reading and defo no driving. Sure we'll go on day trips and I'm looking forward to a spot of line fishing but resting the bones is the order of the day, or even fortnight. ... read more

Woke up early this morning for another day at sea, it couldn't be as successful as yesterday, could it? The weather forecast wasn't good but we were lucky, we were out at 8:15 and although it had been raining earlier it was clear and quite bright, partial cloud cover at times but good spotting conditions. We were looking for Lagenorhnchus obscurus, or the Dusky Dolphin, Dusky Dolphins are found in coastal temperate waters of New Zealand, about 20 mins from the coast of Kaikoura. This species is normally found in small pods of 6 to 15 animals, but larger groups of 20 to 500 animals, or massive aggregations of over 1,000, are also common, according to our guide. They are the most highly social and acrobatic of dolphins, they leap, spin, somersault and often associate with ... read more

The Queen Charlotte Track is a 72km tramp from Ships Cove in the north of the Queen Charlotte Sounds to Anawika in the south. One of the nicest things about the track is the native bush that lines the walk for most of the time, the views across the sounds, and the nice places to stay on the way. The easiest way to walk the track is to catch a water taxi up to Ships Cove and spend the next few days walking back to Aniwaka. On the way to Ships Cove we were lucky enough to see a pod of Dusky Dolphins, they played for a while in the wake of the boat. We decided to walk the track over three days and two nights, having purchased only enough trekking food (chocolate, cakes and tuna ... read more