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On Monday I finally made it onto the stray bus en-route to Milford Sound. The group on the bus all knew each other already it seemed but I got to know some nice girls from Ireland and two brothers from Canada within the first few hours. Milford Sound itself was spectacular - Photos will be added when I get to a fast enough computer! Its out at the start of Fiordland and is set amongst amazing Mountains. We went on a boat cruise out to the sea and saw wild Dolphins and seals sunbathing on the rocks (just the seals that is!) We were really lucky with the weather as we got a lovely warm sunny afternoon after a cloudy start. When we sailed along the clouds were't even as high as the mountains around us so that made for some pretty amazing photos. That evening we stayed in a place called Tuatapere (the sausage capital of new zealand!) the hostel was lovely and i spent the evening on the balcony with a box of red wine and my book - perfect end to the day!
On Tuesday we travelled down to Invercargill - the weather was pretty rubbish again - rain and cloud so when we got there at lunchtime we booked in to see the new James Bond at the Cinema which was just across the street. It was very good - i think Daniel Craig excelled himself and has certainly buffed up a bit hasn't he?!! Had a strange room without any window at all in it which was a bit claustrophobic but the rest of the hostel was pretty nice so not a bad stay altogether...
Wednesday saw us head off along the South coast in an easterly direction towards the Catlins. We stoppped at a place called Waitapa point to see the lighthouse and the sea-lions on the beach. Just as we got there a huge male came up on to the beach and posed for a load of pictures it seemed before meandering back into the sea - it was massive - we were warned not to get too close and one girl kept walking nearer and nearer (was hoping it might chase her and give us all a laugh but he behaves himself after all, hahaha - mean aren't I! I got dropped off at about 1.30 at a place called Curio Bay. It was a very small village by the sea - very remote and absolutley stunning. I went to cove where there is a fossilised forest (something to do with the ice age or something - i glazed over a bit on the informative talk I'm afraid!) but its really rare and theres only a few in the world or something! Ok so i won't make much a tour guide! But the big thing was that every evening a group of Yellow eyed penguins came in from the sea and waddled across the rocky shelf to their nests in under the clifts. They are the rarest species of penguin in the world and I saw 5 of them over the two nights I stayed so that was great! They went out to sea at about 5am but I didn't manage to get up for that bit!
On Thursday I had the whole day there so went out for a long walk up the beach and watched the surfers! Met a canadian man in the hostel who had been biking around the world for 5 1/2 years!! He had some pretty amazing stories to tell us! Today (Friday) dawned really sunny and i wasn't being picked up till 1pm so spent the morning out on the balcony with my book having a bit of a sunbathe before joining the stray bus again. Much smaller group this time but 4 people from the one I caught earlier in the week which was nice. We travelled to Dunedin this afternoon which is where I'm typing from now. We're staying in an old converted hotel called Leviathan which seems pretty nice and is very central - again I am sharing with 7 guys but 6 of them are off tomoro - only two of us staying for the whole weekend. I don't have too much planned - going to check out the tour around the Speights brewery and maybe got to the chocolate factory :) I think theres a nice little market on too - the only other thing I have learned about Dunedin is that it has the steepest street in the world so i might have to check that out aswell! Will check in again soon xxx
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