Farewell to the Icebreaker! The beautiful, hefty mean-machine has taken us all over the South Island and we are at pains to give it back... Still give it back, we have after a long loooong drive up from Shag Point this morning. After our fantastic Christmas in Wanaka, we spent Boxing Day hiking up to the Rob Roy Glacier in the Mount Aspiring National Park. It is a spectacular day hike, passing by huge waterfalls and finally getting a great view of the Rob Roy Glacier itself. And no, unfortunately, Liam Neeson wasn't there in a kilt.

Once up at the glacier, the temperature rapdily dropped and it was extremely chilly... Not too chilly, however, for the kea, a type of alpine parrot that are rather friendly. We saw a wild one up ther and got some great pictures of it before climbing back down to the Icebreaker.

It was a tricky road to negotiate our way out of, but finally we were on our way, with nothing ahead of us but open road... We managed to get from the glacier to Dunedin in about 4 hours (probably some kind of record), navigating our way through the hills and bumpy bits of Central Otago.

We woke up on the Otago Peninsula, a haven for wildlife. We went down to Sandfly Bay and saw a NZ fur seal sleeping on the rocks, as well as a couple of shy, yellow-eyed penguins under a big boulder. We then went up to the Albatross Centre and spotted a couple of albatross flying about. We fed a swarm of seagulls and hung about until dusk before wrapping up warm and braving the drizzle at Pilot Beach. We waited a waited... And then, our patience was rewarded, as a colony of blue penguins came ashore and waddled up to their nesting holes. It was a very special experience, especially watching the little penguins try to skip across an open patch of gravel.

After driving up to Shag Point in a torrential downpour (that still hasn't stopped, incidentally), we spent a damp night there before heading up the copast this morning to Christchurch where we thankfully managed to return the Icebreaker on time and in excellent condition.

Now we've got an evening to kill in Christchurch before our flight tomorrow (that we hope goes ahead - on Boxing Day there were major aftershocks from the earthquake a couple of months back, and the damage is acute). We're thinking of going to the performance of the haka later, after a mammoth gourmet pizza at Winnie's to celebrate our last night in New Zealand.

Overall, we would both give our holiday rating 11/10, although Howie would deduct a mark for the weather, which has been less than desireable anywhere outside of Queenstown. We have had a completely amazing time in New Zealand and will definately be back for some more adventures in the Icebreaker. South Island done....