Drove here yesterday after deciding the south coast with its wind, cold and rain were not worth staying for. Much better here and we brought forward our trip to Doubtful Sound to today. Woke at 6.15am, clear skies, the Southern Cross clearly visible but cool. Went to the harbour for 7.30 and boarded at 8. Trip across Lake Manapouri tok about 50 minutes. At this end we spent some time avoiding a plague of sand flies before boarding a bus for a trip underground to ...

As you can see, we have now seen a yellow eyed penguin. This one emerged from the sea at about 8pm last evening. Kept us waiting though, fishing must have been good. Went back to the beach this morning. The dolphins were swimming near the shore in water about waist deep and coming in on waves as if surfing. Cold, cloudy and windy today. We went to Slope Point, the most southerly point on South Island, to another bay and then into Invercargill. Had a wander and vi...

Left Newhaven this morning in cloudy conditions with a persistent drizzle. Visited some waterfalls and Cathedral Caves, on the beach. This involved a lot of walking down hills and back up the same route so we were pretty exhausted on arrival here, a camp site right on the beach. See picture. We set up camp and decided to have an ice cream. We walked 10 yards to the top of the beach and there, playing in the surf, were about 6 Hectors Dolphins. Why is the camera i...

Had a great time driving up to the Otago wine lands. We had a tasting at Felton Rd in Bannockburn and a tasting and lunch at Carrick winery. We were too late for lunch but the waiter went to ask chef and he agreed to feed us. We ate in an empty restaurant with a view across the vineyard to Dunstan Lake. Was OK! We hav E also had a scenic train ride through a deep gorge out of Dunedin. Stayed in Bannockburn and then drove south again, staying in Gore overnight. T...

Left Wellington early Sat. Uneventful flight, turbo prop, just like getting on a bus. Arrived to pick up motorhome at 8.30am as e-mailed to them but they were expecting us at 11.30 for some reason. Anyway, they lent us a car and we went off to shop. Drove south and arrived at Geraldine where we stayed for the first night. Good site. Spent much of the evening devising some sort of plan for the next 3 weeks. Thought we should have one. As we left Geraldine, low clo...