The last few days have been our most stunning scenery and nature wise.
With only a few days left in New Zealand we've been soaking it all in.
From Te Anau we drove to Milford Sound- supposedly one of the most
beautiful in the world- and it didn't dissapoint- a windy road up and
down mountains and through stunning valleys. We stopped off a couple
of times on the way- firstly to laugh at the very naughty Kia birds
who are called the "teenagers of the parrot world." They skip around
the car parks looking hopeful that someone will feed them and have
become very tame because people do- one jumped into our van when we
were looking the other way! We then carried on further and stopped at
the mirror lakes- crystal clear ponds that you could see eels in as
well as the stunning reflections of the mountains. When we got to
Milford Sound we booked a boar trip for the following day and parked
up our van for the night where we could see a sky full of glittering
stars. The next morning we got up early and went on our cruise of the
"sound" On it we learnt that it's in fact not a sound at all but a
fjord. A sound is carved out of the mountains by a river and has a
rounded bottom whereas a fjord is made by a melted glacier and goes
down into a deep 'v' shape. It's beautiful anyway- the highlight of
the trip was coming across a Pygmy right whale. Apparently whales are
very rare there and the staff on our boat had never seen them so we
were very lucky. What was fantastic was that the skipper got so close
to it- we were literally 3 metres away and had a fantastic view as it
came up for air. I'm not sure that you're supposed to get that close
as on whale watching expeditions we have seen sold they say they only
get 200ft away but it was a fantastic experience. We also saw a
fjordland crested penguin which are the second rarest in the world.
After our great morning it was back in the van and we drove back to
Queenstown. We could have spent the night in Te Anau again but there
is not much there and the yummy food was calling us back as well as my
back which was dying to see an Osteopath. We stayed there and then
yesterday for the south and Catlins Reserve. Last night we found an
amazing spot right on the coast next to the most southern point in the
country. It was a campsite in the middle of nowhere and noone working
either- you paid your fees into an honesty box! It had a resident pod
of Hectors dolphins in the bay and also yellow eyed penguins. We sat
at the lookout for quite a while but they are very shy and some idiots
were walking round on the beach which would stop them appearing. After
a very peaceful night today we had a stunning drive through the
reserve and the southernmost tip of New Zealand. unfortunately it was
tipping down so we didn't stop and explore much and arrived here on
the Otago peninsula by Dunedin at 5pm. We decided to have another go
at seeing the rarest penguin in the world- the yellow eyed-and went to
the reserve they have here. It is a family's private farm- they
noticed them on the beach and now have a breeding colony and hospital.
We sat in hides around the stubbing beach they can no longer use and
were again very lucky- we saw 2 penguins coming home one of which
walked straight past us very close, one going out fishing and diving
into the water and a couple nesting. They were so cute and comical and
I was amazed at how far they walk to their nesting sites on land-
sometimes as far as 1km. There was a great big sea lion lying on the
beach who is a predator to them and it was funny to see them waddle
in, clock him and then do a hard turn in another direction. It Is
breeding season and lots of them were sitting on eggs. They do help
them there and even give them a goose egg to practise on the year
before they are old enough to have their own! We also saw a few blue
headed or fairy penguins in their nesting boxes who were gorgeous too.
Our guide was very excited by all the activity we saw and said we were
extremely lucky to see so much so we seem to have something about us
with these animals at the moment! We are staying here on the peninsula
tonight and them tomorrow will head up the east coast on our way back
to Christchurch where we leave for Sydney on Sunday.