New Zealand: The Catlins National Park

The Golden Nuggets. They glow golden when the sunlight hits them. Of course the sun decided to hide when we got to them - so we didn't get the full effect!




I loved the coastline of the South Coast in Catlins National Park - it was stunning.




Thanks to all the SLTs for purchasing me the torch - it came in very useful!! This was an old train tunnel which Martin wanted to go down. It was actually quite freaky.

You can't really tell in the picture, but the sea was so bright. I've never seen it like that anywhere else in the world.

A blow hole which was about 2km from the ocean. The water was so loud.

The coastline was amazing and changed all the time.

Some more of the magnificent coastline.

A fairly impressive water fall. Not so sure about Martin's face!

Another lovely forest walk.

New Zealand: Bank's Peninsula and Peel Forest

After Christchurch - we drove to the Bank's Peninsula and then on to the scenic road up to Peel Forest. We arrived too late to pay at the office in Peel Forest and so ended up staying there accidentally for free!




We had collected our beautiful, subtle Spaceship in Christchurch!







Here Martin is as the male model!!

Our 1st attempt at cooking tea in our Spaceship! It was hilarious - too dark, too cold and too windy for the gas to stay alight! We attempted to cook potatoes and meat too! Never again - it was cheese sandwiches, scramble eggs and 2 minute noodles for ever more!







One of the gigantic trees in Peel Forest.









Martin playing stepping stones.









We did a short hike to Emily Falls.







Not quite as impressive as the Iguassu Falls!! But hey - they were nice.

New Zealand: Dunedin

Zoe (a good uni mate) put us up for the weekend and gave us lovely traditional kiwi food - Eggs Benedict, smoked venison, fejoa juice and of course Lamb! It was so nice to have a nice bed and washing machine etc. Thanks Zo! All the following photos are thanks to Zoe too on her sightseeing and nature tour on the Sunday.

An aerial view of Dunedin - a very pretty city.

Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world and more bl**dy steps!!




Zoe and Martin on the way down.





Photos don't do it justice!





Sea lion or seal?? I think it was too big to be a seal.





It also got angry when a man got too close to take a photo!






The coastline and lighthouse on the Otago Peninsula. It was so windy, but very beautiful. This is the area where Albatross (huge birds) live and breed. We did see some, but couldn't get a photo.




The view from the Otago Peninsula.

A little sea lion. We were concentrating so hard on this little fella - and making sure that we didn't walk between him and the sea......

..... Then we spotted this huge monster about 1m behind us!!! Luckily Martin saw this sea lion as otherwise we could have been in trouble. We were in the worst possible place for it to feel threatened. Oops.

Zoe took us to this beach - it was lovely. There was a massive sand dune that you could run down. It was very hard work to get back up though. Good fun!

We did a tour of the Speight's factory.

This is Zoe pretending to drink! It was hilarious because Zoe was on a super rigid detox and so couldn't drink and I hate beer! Martin managed to do quite well out of it! We went to a Japanese restaurant for the 1st time after this. It was o.k, but I wouldn't rush back.

The following day we went back to the Otago Peninsula. This is the beach of the conservation area. A farmer owns it, but he has decided to turn a lot of his land into a protected colony for the penguins. I didn't expect NZ to have such beautiful beaches.

We were stalking penguins everywhere we went. This is a rare Yellow-eyed Penguin - they only breed in very few places. They are much larger than the Blue Penguins. If you look very carefully - you can see a penguin nesting in the box. The male and female alternate fishing and nesting each day. Good plan!

The train station in Dunedin. This is about the best architecture that we saw in NZ and this is thanks to the Scots.

The Cadbury's towers.

The Cadbury's factory - Martin also had a beard net as he's forgotten how to shave at all since we've been away!! Perhaps we should have worn these for our wedding!

After a lovely luxurious weekend with Zoe - we got back to normal!! Eating fish (blue cod) and chips on the floor in a car park!

New Zealand: The East Coast

We travelled down the east coast to Dunedin. We thought there would be a few things to do on the way - but there are only 2 towns and there is nothing much going on in either of them! We had a cheese sanwich in Timaru and continued to Oamaru.









We saw little Blue Penguins coming in from fishing at Oamaru. It was amazing - they are so tiny and struggle to climb up the rocks to go home. We couldn't take any photos as it damages their eyes! I took the sign instead. Penguins are such amazing creatures.














The Moeraki Boulders were an important site to see - the Maori legend is that they are the crew from a boat. The scientific reason is that they were moulded by the sea and weather and that they were formed in a similar way to oyster pearls.





































We were driving along the coastal road along some of the way. This was in our newly aquired Spaceship (campervan vs car) .

I saw this along the way and thought of my Mum and Dad!

New Zealand: Christchurch

We only spent a day in Christchurch. We tried to go out on a Tues night and everyone laughed - there was one place open and about 10 people in there!



The centre of Christchurch and the cathedral - of course it was being refurbished when we were there and so we couldn't go in!

The Botanical Gardens. It was gorgeous walking through here.





This was all before I got my bag and sunglasses nicked. We managed to get all the way across South America - and it happens in bl**dy New Zealand!







The Bank's Peninsula. Looks like a postcard!

New Zealand: Mount Cook

We hired a car and drove to Mt Cook for the day on the way to Christchurch (we had to pick up our camper from there). The car was automatic whuich neither of us have driven before - so that was entertaining at 1st.



Martin found this entertaining....






It was a slight hike to get to the lookout. Slightly different from the Inca Trail.






Beautiful weather for us for a change - ha ha! It snowed, was sunny, rained and was windy. Mental. Mt Cook is the one at the back that you can't see very well!

The sediment in front of the glacier.

Lake Tekapo - absolutely stunning. You can actually see how blue it is in the photo too. It's amazing and due to the rock flour from the glaciers.

This was another lake, but I can't remember the name of it though.