New Zealand: The Glaciers

This was the river that the Fox Glacier melted into. It's such a beautiful colour because of the rock flour from the glacier.




It's really deceiving how big the glaciers are. This glacier is about a 500m away I think, but it looks really close.




This was the mirrored lake close to the Fox Glacier. Martin and I went on a romantic march around it.




We drove for miles to get to this area. I'm glad the colour is picked up.




How did we live like this? Martin getting something from the frontroom in the space ship.



A field of deer.



Glacier - take 2! The Franz Josef Glacier.




These signs made me feel very safe.

A hike on the Franz Joseph Glacier. Rather cold, but amazing. It was a shock to realise how big the glacier and the crevasses are when you actually get to it.

New Zealand: Milford Sound

Of course - we had fabulous weather for Milford Sound!!




The waterfalls were pretty outstanding though! It rains for about 320 days a year at Milford Sound - but it means that there are way more waterfalls to see!




As the weather was so crap - we chose to sit at the worst part of the boat and have fun. It was so rough - it was like a rollercoaster! Ha ha!

The mist actually made it more stunning - even though it was difficult to keep the camara dry!

I read that in NZ sometimes you feel inferior if you do not have a camper van. The drive back from Milford Sound was quite funny!

The lake at Te Anau - I can't remember the name. I took it upon myself to try and be a photographer.

The clouds looked amazing in this picture, so Martin actually grabbed the camara!! He also managed to get the field full of deer. It's quite strange seeing deer in the way that we do with sheep and cows in the UK. They love their venison in NZ and you can get it fairly cheap.

Shortly after taking this picture, we stopped and made 2 minute noodles. I left the lights on for that time and so the battery went dead (for the second time) and we had to get the AA out again! Oops!

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!