Blogs from Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Our second and final day in the Catlins. We headed out in sunshine to complete our Catlins visit and arrive in Dunedin. First of all we visited Lake Wilkie, a sort of homage to how quickly rainforest can grow, was just a short walk but interesting. Next was the Matai and Horseshoe falls. I took a tripod with me to have a play with my neutral density filter so I got some long exposure shots of these two, then we went to Purakanui falls but by this stage the clouds had gathered and it was raining hard so Helen decided to stay in the car for this one so I went alone! Next was the Tunnel Hill, an old abandoned railway tunnel hand carved out of the mountain in the 1800’s to allow timber trains to ... read more

Part 1: Midsummer Morn "O, do not tell the priest our plight, For he would call it a sin, But we have been out in the woods all night, A-conjuring summer in." I wasn't, of course, though I did talk to Jim from 2 a.m. to 4. Throughput here seems to be better at night. "And we bring you news by word of mouth, Great news for cattle and corn! Now is the sun come out of -- er, into -- the south, With Oak and Ash and Thorn." I spent this Midsummer Day sitting in the lounge at Pinot Lodge, waiting to be taken to the bus stop at 3 p.m.. It was a peaceful, quiet day. I reread *The Two Towers*. The owner showed up fifteen minutes early, bless her, so I didn't have ... read more

The Southern Scenic route was the first such road to be completed on the South Island and runs from Te Anau south to the sea and along the coastline until nearly Dunedin on the East coast. It covers a range of scenic gems and includes many reserves and parklands, all of which help maintain and in some cases restore natural areas. Technically, we were already on the scenic route after we had left town the previous day, but on waking up it felt more like we had entered a new phase of our trip than before. We took a stroll to the nearby viewpoint overlooking the lake (not much of a view!) before packing up and retracing our 'steps' along the very long gravel track which led to the main road. As a brief detour, we ... read more

The bottom of the South Island and the Catlins Le sud de l'ile du Sud et les Catlins... read more

Polling day for everyone back in the UK - we’re looking forward to hearing the results as it sounds like it’s going to be an interesting election! Although being the other side of the world, polling won’t officially close until after we’ve had our breakfast tomorrow morning! Today was another quiet laid-back day for us, but oh such a perfect day! We went into Invercargill to have a look at its architecture which we were told was wonderful, I suppose it wasn’t bad, but someone had chosen to paint it in the most awful colours. There was also The Crescent, which was spoken of as something grand - I suppose I was expecting something like the Royal Crescent in Bath, and instead got something more reminiscent of Slough! You may be disappointed to know that we ... read more