Early start to head off into the Catlins today - taking the coastal route, brief stop at Waipapa Point, the site of the earliest southern shipwreck in the late 1800s where a steam ship full of passengers hit a covered reef and then sunk. Also on the site a little lighthouse, that was built as a result of the above, and of course we saw a seal surfing the waves... Past mini-Niagara Falls (and no we're not in Canada)

Today with regret... We left our cool Fjordland lodge log cabin, and took to the southern scenic road. On the way we came across Monkey Island (a little version of Green Island in Jersey...) which used to serve as a Maori whale look-out point. Continuing down, we stopped for a tavern lunch and a look around the small fishing town of Riverton. Being Sunday it is pretty quiet, and so is Invercargill as we drove through to find our hotel stop for the night - Ascot...

Well yesterday was fairly busy - into town, followed by a walk along the southern part of Te Anau - did you know this place was a worldwide re-knowned walking destination? And in the afternoon we took a boat trip on the lake, all the way to the hidden caverns. There we went into a dark hole in the forrest - at first bent over, but then the cavern opened into quiye huge space, all naturally carved by the water flow, and still active. We went deeper in, about 300m...

To the bemuzement of other travellers, our coach actually picked us up at the lodge this morning rather than us having to travel into town to catch it! On the way, brief stop at Mirror Lakes (i leave you to speculate why it is so called), we 'officially' passed 45deg south, meaning we are now closer to the south pole than to the Equator! Exciting no?! There's a man-made tunnel that goes through the base of one of the peaks at Homer's Saddle- approx 1.3 miles lo...

Well that was a good night's sleep in our very own log cabin in the Fjordlands... We even have our own back garden, views over the longest lake in NZ (and second deepest), and a fantastic backdrop of mountains and valleys. The main lodge features one massive fireplace (it's not that warm in the evenings/ mornings otherwise!), and huge windows - as well as a mezzanine library. Perfect - i just finished my last book. Today is likely to be a relaxing one, reading...