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Published: January 7th 2007
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Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After leaving the southern tip of the South Island, we headed north up to Dunedin. Dunedin is famous for its Otago rugby side, Speights Beer (which is very good we might add!!) and blue and yellow eyed penguins. The blue penguins are the rarest penguin in the world, so we were both very keen to see some. So we headed out one evening to the viewing point only to find that a local company had erected a viewing stand and wanted to charge us a large entrance fee to watch the penguins!!! Needless to say, we weren't so fussed to pay to watch penguins so we decided to find another beach and find some penguins ourselves. After an hour of looking we found what was to be our last beach to look for penguins. Becky was quite tired at this point, so Mike went down to see what he could find. He soon came racing back, not with news of yellow eyed penguins but of a pod of killer whales. We both raced back to see four or five huge fins in the water. Even though we were a fair distance a way, the size of the
The scary yellow eyed penguin!
We saw this in the wild (one of the most endangered penguins in the world) just after we had seen a pod of killer whales in the sea!!!!!! whales was still staggering. We only had a few minutes watching them before they went round the headland, yet it was at this moment that our camera decided not to work. Mike had a killer whale in view as it was diving, the white eye visible, yet the camera wouldn't take the shot!!!!! And then it was to late to take another, they were gone (hence there are no photos of the killer whales!!). After all the excitment we headed back to the van, only to find a yellow eyed penguin less than a metre away!!! While watching the whales (and making quite a lot of noise) he had come out to defend his nest. As you can see from the photo, his eyes made him look a bit scary, and he refused to leave until we had all gone. We eventually let him be, knowing how lucky we had just been to see a pod of killer whales and one of the world's rarest penguins in the wild.
From Dunedin, we decided to head inland towards the mighty Mount Cook. This is the largest montain in New Zealand, and we had picked a beautiful day to go visit
Lakeside view
On the way to Mt.Cook. it. To get to the national park, there is only one long road in and out of the park, however the views were spectacular. We could see Mt Cook from a fair distance away but as we got closer, the sheer size and colours of the mountain became clearer and vivid. As we approached the Mountain, we drove past a huge glacial lake, the colour of which was a fantastic aqua blue. The lake didn't look real, it looked as if it had been dyed.
From Mount Cook, we decided to head north again, to an area we had missed on the way down the South Island. Abel Tasman National Park is on the north west coast and is famous for its very still calm waters and (yet more) beautiful coastal scenery. The best way to see the coastine was obviously by bost, however we decided to be a little different. We decided to hire a sea kayak for the day and paddle up the coast instead. We had a great day, exploring the coves and waterways around the coast, only to pull up on a deserted beach (only accessible from the sea) for lunch. It was great to
be exploring the coastline at our pace with only the sound of the sea, seals and birds (by the end of the day we had paddled 16km and didn't our arms know about it!!!!). It was also in the Abel Tasman that we found our favourite beach in New Zealand. The following day we went out exploring in the campervan and found a gravel road signposted towards a beach. We had of course come across many such roads before however after 45min of gravel road and not passing anyone, we started to wonder how much further we should go. Eventually we arrived, and what greated us was a near perfect beach and because of the distance from the main road, there was no one around (See the photo, although it doesn't do it justice).
From the Abel Tasman we headed across the north coast of the South Island through Nelson and onto the Malborough Sounds which was again another beautiful spot of New Zealand. We won't say anymore than that, because you must all be getting sick of how many beautiful places we've been to in this incredible country.
After an overnight stop, we headed south again to
The very tip of Mt.Cook
We were testing our zoom!! Not bad eh?? Christchurch, the main city of the South Island. It was here that we handed back our beloved Donald the campervan. After living in it for 6 weeks, we were looking forward to a proper bed and our own proper shower. We spent four great days over christmas in a hostel and explored the city, visiting the museum, botanical gardens and sampling the fine food and drink. We had a great Christmas and were thourghly relaxed and recharged by the end of it!
From Christchurch we then headed to Melboune, Australia where we celebrated a fantastic New Year, but more of that in the next blog.
Thankyou for all the good wishes and messages we have received. We love reading them and wish everyone a very happy new year.
Lots of love to all,
Becky and Mike xxx
Also HUGE congratulations to Jen and Sean, our very great friends from back home. Fantastic news, looking forward to seeing you in April to celebrate. Lots of love and hugs xxx
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Rach
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soooo jealous!
guys, looks like your having an absolutely awesome time, i'm so jealous!! giving me really bad travel bug...! anyway, presume from the fantastic photos that you guys are having a amazing time. keep the update coming, take care, love rach x