Hello again.

So, to continue the story....

After dropping Porscha at the airport in the pouring rain and faffing on the internet for a while we decided to head back towards Te Anau to drive the Southern Scenic Route along the South and West Coast. The night was spent at a very cold, damp, smelly campsite with loads of mosquitos and toilets so bad that we used the woods instead! Luckily the next day the rain had stopped and we woke to beautiful blue skies ready to continue our journey - Woo hoo!!!

We had intended to do a walk up a nearby peak that morning but the sign at the bottom of the road saying 4WD only put us off. So, we walked a different route, only to join the 4WD only road and find that it was in better condition than many other roads we've driven on over here - really frustrating! Nick also ended the walk overcome with jelousy as two guys on brand new KTM motorbikes rode past us. Apparently, the raw power of the pimple just doesn't compare!

The rest of the day was spent winding our way along the scenic road through the Catlins stopping at various points of interest along the way. The Catlins themselves are disturbingly English looking. It was like driving through rural England or the South of IOM. Lots of rolling hills and fields full of sheep!

The next day, followed much the same pattern. A walk along a coastal route in the morning looking, unsucessfully, for Hector's Dolphins (the rarest dolphins in the world). Then, after lunch, driving along stopping at various beaches along the way to watch surfers and windsurfers. It was incredibly windy that day and it looked pretty mad out on the water! That night we camped by a lighthouse in a really beautiful spot but the wind was so strong I hardly slept at all. I kept imagining that the van was going to blow over - much more scarey than bungy jumping!!

Luckily the wind had died down by the morning, the van was still upright and we woke to find a sea lion asleep on the grass a little down hill from where we had camped! And so our day of nature began! We started by going to Slope Point, the most Southerly point of main land NZ then headed on to:
- Curio bay (an area of rocks by the sea where a prehistoric forest has been fosilised - really weird to see loads of stone "tree trunks" and "trees" among the flat rocks)
- Porpoise Bay (where we saw Hector's dolphins and sea lions)
- Niagra Falls of NZ (rubbish!!! A very small bump in a stream!)
- McClean Falls (really pretty) and
- Jack's Blowhole (a huge chasm about 200m inland, and high above sea level where the sea rushes in and gets forced upwards. We were there just before high tide and the water was rushing in and getting pushed up quite high so it must be even more impressive at high tide!)

Finally, we arrived at Nugget Point and Roaring Bay where we had been told we could see seals, sea lions, elephant seals and yellow eyed penguins. Unfortunately, the walkway is at the top of the cliff, the animals are at the bottom and our binoculars were in the van!! There were lots of things on the rocks at Nugget Point (we think they were sealions and seals) and we definately saw a solitary yellow eyed penguin at Roaring Bay. Not quite as good as the Galapagos but still pretty impressive!

That night as a little home from home we camped at a campsite on Park Road.

The next day our wildlife exploration continued with a trip to an albatros colony near Dunedin. Unfortunately it cost a small fortune to see the nests and chicks but we did have a look around the visitor centre and watch the birds soaring above. They are huge, to quote Nick's cousin Chris "like small planes". The rest of that day was spent driving (via a couple of scenic lookouts and hydro dams) on a mission to reach Mount Cook, right in the middle of South Island.

A quick over night stop at a free campsite and our journey continued, arriving at Mount Cook village that morning. It is breathtakingly beautiful there. It felt completely surreal to be surrounded by such a dramatic landscape. We couldn't stop looking at (and photgraphing!) the mountains and glaciers. Unfortunately, the photo's don't look half as good as it looked in reality!!

We stayed in Mount Cook Village for the next couple of days doing all of the short walks in the area and visiting the Sir Edmund Hilary Museum. This has displays about his life and Mount Cook and some brilliant films about space and the stars. The weather was amazing the whole time we were there with completely clear skies everyday. Unfortunately this meant that it was freezing cold every night and we woke to ice on the outside of the van, but I guess that's the price you pay when you camp next to a glacier!! We were also there for the start of a world wide star gazing event (apparently it's going on all over the world for the next 100 days). We joined in for a bit of that but the guide was just showing us the same things that we were shown in Chile so we left after about half an hour!

The next day we reluctantly left Mount Cook and drove to nearby Lake Pukaki for breakfast then on to Lake Tekapo where we did some walking. The colour of the water in these lakes is amazing, a really bright, almost unnatural, blue caused by the dust that's washed into them via the glacial melt water. Anyway, after a 4 hour walk along the banks of Lake Tekapo we rewarded ourselves with a much deserved (and much needed) soak in some hot springs. Now, that was woderful!!!!!

So, after another night camping in the middle of no-where we set off towards civilisation in Christchurch arriving yesterday lunchtime. The afternoon we went our seperate ways for a few hours. Nick going to watch a local rugby match in the park and me visiting the Christchurch Art Gallery. Apparently the rugby was great but I think the Art Gallery was better, they even had an architecture exhibition on (anyone heard of Miles Warren?) and an exhibition of Rita Angus's work (an NZ painter) which I loved.

And so to today. Well this morning has been spent internetting and who knows what this afternoon holds!?!? Nick will continue the story next time....

xx