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Fiordland & Southland
Our adventure around New Zealand continues at a pace. It only seems like yesterday that we picked up Steve (our trusty van) from Auckland and yet we have been here for over 5 weeks now and our journey will soon be over.
Before leaving the beautiful Wanaka we gave Puzzling World a visit. It's hard to describe Puzzling World, however I would highly recommend it if you like puzzles, mazes and illusion-based tomfoolery. Needless to say we spent a good few hours lost in the maze and on escape set our sights for Queenstown.
On arrival in the town it was a welcome change to see more than about three people, one of which was Jemma, a friend of Laura's from work in Exeter, so for the next few days Jemma joined our NZ tour. Our time in Queenstown was spent indulging in slightly less adrenaline fuelled activities than the normal tourist and rather than lobbing ourselves off bridges or out of planes we instead lobbed a Frisbee around the park in a surprisingly competitive game of Frisbee Golf. We also watched some marine life from an underwater observatory the highlight of which were the ducks diving (they rocked)! The girls indulged in some retail therapy and then that evening we treated ourselves to a world famous Fergburger! The next morning after a windy night in at a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite, we picked up Jemma from her hostel, pilfered a shower and set off for Milford Sound and Fiordland.
The drive was spectacular and a stark contrast to the rolling hills of North Island. We stopped off for a couple of walks through rainforest and to waterfalls before arriving at the accommodation for the night amongst snow capped mountains. The next morning we jumped on a cruise around Milford Sound and luckily for us had clear blue skies that made the boat trip even better. We spotted the rare Fiordland Crested Penguin and some fur seals but were out of luck when it came to dolphins. After the cruise we had a cuppa, Laura took 58 photos (no joke) of a reflection of mountains in a lake and we headed back towards Te Anau and Queenstown. On the way we stopped off for a three and a half hour walk to Key Summit where we looked out across several mountain ranges and then failed to remember any glacier related terminology that we were all taught at school (however arêtes, cirques and U-shaped valleys were mentioned once or twice).
We spent the night in Te Anau and the next day went our separate ways as Laura and I travelled south to Invercargill and Jemma returned to Queenstown to see a man about a car! In Invercargill we visited the museum and saw Henry a Tuatara (a lizard creature that lived in the time of dinosaurs) and his mates before driving out to Bluff for a photo of a sign. From Bluff we drove to Curio Bay on the Catlins coast and encountered some pretty rough gravel roads. We watched as Yellow-Eyed penguins returned to their nests after a day at sea and spent the night in a windswept camp.
The next day we continued our journey through the Catlins. We began our day by visiting Slope Point (the most southern part of mainland New Zealand), spending most of our time trying not to be blown off the side of the cliff as we took photos in the gale force winds. Next we stopped at Papatowai to look in on the Lost Gypsy Gallery. It's hard to explain but well worth the stop. Situated in the back of an old bus it specialises in homemade self wound gizmos and gadgets made from bits of junk. We spent the rest of the day stopping off at a number of pretty bays and coves. At Cannibal Cove I got close to a large Hooker's Sea Lion as a terrified Laura took photos from distance! We then stopped at Nugget Point and walked to a pretty lighthouse overlooking rocks teeming with seals, sea lions and birdlife.
That evening we made it to Dunedin and got some "Fush & Chups" to round off our day. In the morning we pottered around a very Scottish Dunedin before going out to the Otago Peninsular. We paid a visit to Larnach Castle (the only one in the Southern Hemisphere) and then made our way to the Royal Albatross colony where we got a tour and viewed the birds from an observatory. The following day we went to watch the New Zealand Black Caps take on Pakistan at the Otago University cricket ground. On our way we bumped into a man who offered us free tickets for the day which was nice. We enjoyed a relaxed sunny day encouraging the Kiwi bowlers (C'mon Bondy!!) as they ripped through the Pakistan middle order.
From Dunedin we made our way up to Oamuru to look at some Blue Penguins. To find out
how we got on you'll have to wait until next time!
Stani & Laura
p.s. See Westland/Fiordland and Southland for most recent photos, we had to add them in stages due to rubbish internet!
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