Blogs from Southland, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Driving to Manapouri We wake up this morning to finish the Southern Coastal Route to Te Anau and then head onto the Milford road to yes Milford. This is also where I get the brilliant idea to take pictures while I am en-route to my destinations (all good until I nearly lost all my pictures and now that they have been retrieved they are all in a mess and I have difficulty remembering which bit was which, I will expand a bit more in the next post) as the surrounding environment was always so beautiful. It became a bit frustrating at times for hubby as he was never sure if I wanted him to stop so I could get a better picture but if we stopped everywhere we would never get to our destination! Anyway.... So ... read more

Stuart Island in the morning, then would be going back to Queenstown in the evening. Apparently, Stuart Island only has 28km of roads (handy fact in case it ever comes up on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire). So we walked a bit, had some chips, walked some more, avoided the rain, then went on a glass-bottomed boat to see the fishes. The water is stupidly clear, so that was fun. Would have been nice to stay for longer to be able to do some of the farther walks. Then back on the bus for hours and hours to get back to Queenstown. The rest of the bus was staying in another hostel that had been booked for them, but I chose to go back to Aspen Lodge. I've stayed there before, it's nice, it's cheap, ... read more

The tourist dollar seemed to wane somewhere between Te Anau and Riverton and it had definitely disappeared by the time we reached the boundaries of Invercargill. In fact, Invercargill on a Sunday was officially closed. There was little evidence of the much fabled bad hair and checked shirt comments (which have since been withdrawn from all good travel guides presumably on threat of being sued)…………… indeed there was little evidence of anything and certainly no evidence of any chance of an alcohol refreshment after our journey. We checked into the YHA on the main street and went for an exploration of town. The first impressions were that it was a “real” place - a sort of big Greymouth -but for a town of 50,000 population, there didn’t seem to be many facilities unless you were after ... read more

Two ways I journey nowadays - not that I have given up real travel altogether: 1. Internet - it's utterly unbelievably wonderful 2. Travellers come to us Yes we live in a corner of the universe that is slowly being discovered.. our kind of visitors are the outdoor sort - love wildlife, landscape, wild seas, an adventure with nature.. from all continents and all with great stories to tell and opinions from far away.. we adore a lively conversation over a glass of wine or a morning coffee. I spent my twenties overlanding and working, first in Africa then in South America.. grew up in Scotland on a farm, ended up on a NZ farm with a lot of tropics in between! In recent years I have visited Mexico, S France, Switzerland, W and E Canada, ... read more

First stop down the highway from Christine and Bernard's was Moeraki, place of the boulders. This spot is unique. On a small area of beach, where countless years of wave action has gently eroded the cliffs, the erosion has exposed large boulders, which have rolled down onto the beach and are almost perfectly round as you can imagine, looking every bit like dinosaur eggs that seemed to be birthed by the cliffs. We were greeted by the area's beach-combing dog, who accompanied us down onto the sand. His name tag said Rampage, and he was owned by the folks who had the restaurant at the parking area. He followed us all the way up the sand on our close-up visit to the boulders. We noticed a number of other people squatting down on the beach, exclaiming ... read more