Up close and personal Wow, what a day! After a day of constant drizzle yesterday, we awoke to a clear sky in Fiordland - this is, firstly, very unusual for Fiordland, which is (according to the Rough Guide) the second rainiest place on earth after the rainforests of Tahiti and, secondly, a big stroke of luck given that we were due to get out on Milford Sound for a day of kayaking... but before I get into that, a quick geography lesson (Mrs Ballard, apologies ...

Twitcher notes We have seen a penguin!! And it was Claire who spotted it! It was on a rock where we were looking for seals. It was very likely to be a Fiordland Crested penguin, a very rare penguin and by rights we shouldn't really have seen it as they are out to sea at this time of year so it was very lucky spot, no pics of it though as it was too far away even with my super duper 18-200mm lens. Bellbirds are absolutely everywhere, for me this is a very good t...

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Developed world, hmmmm The majority of radio stations are fully cheese-tastic, packed with 'rock' and golden oldies. I think I've heard A-ha's classic 'Take on me' at least 3 times, another oft heard superb tune is Ace of Bases' 'All that she wants', I think the most recent 'modern' stuff I've heard is a single from Coldplay's latest album! To be fair to them Claire ha...

NZ random observations EVERYONE you chat to has there own top 10, 20, 30 things to go see/do/eat/walk up/drink and are more than happy to share them with you apart from... ...most people in hostels, who don't speak to you, even if you speak to them (mind you we've only stayed in two!) Most older Kiwi's are really friendly, most local 'youths' (can't believe I've just typed that!) have a tendency to look at you in the same way as you might look at a maggo...

Biped NZ Note - this was written in April '09! Which is after all why we are here...we have done so many walks, this place is an absolute paradise for walkers. The aforementioned Routeburn track is one of the many 'Great Walks' in NZ where you can go tramping** for 2-3 days and stay in basic shelters/huts. We did about 40% of this as a day walk from the Glenorchy side but started it later than we should have and ended up returning to Zinny with the way forwa...