Blogs from Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

We had a fantastic time in Southland. Firstly full credit to everyone involved in the Final Four basketball extravaganza, Stadium Southland is a fantastic facility. Special mention to the people of Southland who turned out in force to support the Sharks on Friday and then backed up the next day for the final despite their team not being involved. The atmosphere, noise and sheer excitement of the Saints v Sharks semi final is something that will stay with us for a very long time. Big ups to Shooter the Shark the Southland mascot for her brilliant performance on semi final night:) Invercargill itself does have a bit of a 'back in time' feel about it - in the best possible way. There's heaps of character buildings around the CBD, the streets are super wide and people ... read more

Today dawned a brilliant fine sunny day! So much for the it's always raining and cold in Southland theory - and we're right in the middle of winter too! Standard start to our day: Breakfast at Zoolander, it's the only way to kick things off, although not so much from a weight watcher perspective (which clearly isn't my go), then the short walk around the corner to the Southland Times car park to pick up our car. It is true there are two Round the Mountains - the hard peddling, sweating, grunting push bike variety, and the much less strenuous but much more my style elbow bending Pub crawl. Just to clarify we didn't actually do the Pub crawl, that would be irresponsible and for another day when we can do the bus trip - just ... read more

The Ibis is a great central location and the bed especially is really comfortable, in our room anyway the big downside was the condensation - there were literally puddles of water dripping off the window sill! If anything the weather is even worse today, heavy rain and very cold temperatures, however our day started on a really positive note when we wandered into the Zookeeper Cafe for breakfast. Not surprisingly given the name the decor has a distinctly animal theme! It is an extremely eclectic mix to be fair - from the friendly looking polar bear (complete with mosaic collar) outside, a Cheetah on a racing bike sprinting across the ceiling of the main dining area, to an absolute menagerie scattered throughout the rest of the interior, all in all it created a really cool vibe. ... read more

Beautiful day for travelling and an early start. Public transport in Wellington is great and the Airport Flyer which will take us from Lower Hutt to Wellington Airport leaves from just down the road. We had planned to jump aboard the 6.30am bus but in the end were early and caught the 6.10am. It meant a ridiculously early arrival at the airport - 6.45am for flight being called at 8.10am. Still time to get ourselves organised and enjoy a relaxing breakfast. People watching at airports is always a good way to pass time... In terms of domestic travel in NZ the Wellington to Invercargill route must be one of the most expensive in the country! We fly Wellington-Christchurch/Christchurch-Invercargill, although there are direct flights this was the cheapest option-it still cost us more than return airfares to ... read more

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 ... read more