Fiordland and Southland

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My last blog for this year! And just in time!

After our night in Wanaka we drove to Queenstown to fill Bertha up, and then over Crowne's Pass, which might be the highest pass we've taken this holiday. It was hairpin bends all the way down to Arrowtown. We had a little mosey there(lovely little town but far too crowded, mostly with asian tourists). So onwards to Te Anau!



We spent 2 beautiful days in Te Anau, and went on a GORGEOUS boattrip to Doubtful Sound. Which isn't as easy to get to as Milford, by the way.

We were collected from our holiday park by bus, driven to Manapouri, to take a ferry across Lake Manapouri, to a small jetty next to a big power station(and nothing else), to then be loaded back on to a bus, to drive over Wilmot Pass(the second steepest road in NZ, and gravel I might add), to finally be loaded on to our actual boat for the day.

It was such an amazing experience though! Doubtful is absolutely gorgeous, and we even had an encounter with a group of bottlenose dolphins, which according to the skipper doesn't happen very often! And I didn't get seasick, not even at the sea end of the sound, where it was quite rough! Needless to say we were rosy-cheeked and satisfied when we got back in the evening.





Yesterday we drove down the Scenic Highway to Invercargill. Nice stretch of highway, along the southcoast, past some beautiful beaches that are known for their surfing. Although we haven't seen a single surfer in the waves yet. Wrong season?

On arrival in Invercargill we got the first rain in days, so we waited for the sun to come out again(which took about an hour) and then drove down to Bluff. Highway 1 starts there, and it's also home to an aluminium smelter factory, which uses up about 85% of the electricity generated in the power station in Lake Manapouri. Which we saw the day before. Cirkel. Round.



Today we drove through the Catlins, a beautiful conservation park at the southeast end of the South Island. We walked to McLean Falls, through dense rainforest, and up some slippery slopes. Then we made our way to Surat Bay, and had a nice walk along the beach, where mum was ambushed by a sea lion. We were walking along the edge of the water, and as I was admiring the blue and extremely clear water, all of a sudden I saw a black shadow coming our way. Fast. So I said ' there's one now!', and we only just managed to run away far enough for the sea lion not to reach us! As we carried on down the beach there were bigger, male sea lions sunbathing, and as long as you keep your distance they don't give you the light of day. Pretty amazing to see these huge blubber butts lying there, just like that! I could almost hear Attenborough's voice in the background.

After a long beachy walk we drove up to Nugget Point, which has a 9 kilometer stretch of gravel road to get there.

It was worth it though, for the views you get up there. The walk to the lighthouse is pretty amazing, along a steep cliff to the very tip of the land. You can hear the fur seals screaming down by the water's edge. There were little baby seals play-fighting with eachother, big fat papa seals sunbathing on rocks, seals frolicking around in the small basins of warmer water left behind after the tide went out..



We planned to go to Dunedin to camp there, but as we got to the end of the gravel road we drove through a little town called Kaka Point, which had a campsite and looked pretty idyllic. So we stopped. And here we are. I'm going to make my way down to the local pub to have a drink and celebrate the new year. I wish you all a happy and healthy and adventurous new year!

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