We've managed to fit a reasonable amount into the last 10 days or so; luge in Queenstown, fjords at Doubtful Sound, v.English coastal areas in The Catlins, penguins in Oamaru, a heatwave in Akaroa, whale watching in Kaikora, hot springs at Hamner, rope slides in the Buller Gorge and now a downpour in Picton which has sent us back inside to the computer. Despite all this and the effort required to keep to our schedule, you will be pleased to learn that we are both well and bearing up under the strain - although Caroline did attack me with a large stick that she projected with surprising accuracy and speed towards me last night.
After Wanaka, Queenstown was a little disappointing, being far larger and quite commercialised. However, the surrounding area of mountains and the lake made up for this and we made the effort to sit in a gondola to the top of Bob's Peak from where we enjoyed a couple of runs on the mountain top luge and then ate pies. From Queenstown we drove south to Te Anau, on the eastern edge of the fjordland national park. Our accomodation was (for me at least) the best of the trip, being on a deer farm, in a set of wooden lodges on a hillside overlooking the Keppler Mountains. I very much doubt that the photographs of the sunsets do them justice, but I did miss the first hour of a Will Ferrell film on tv so you can imagine how spectacular the scene was.
A full-day boat trip on Lake Manapouri and across the the fjord at Doubtful Sound lived up to all expectations, exceeding them in respect of the weather which was uncharacteristically hot and sunny all day long in one of the wettest places on earth (between 6-8 meters of rain per year on average). Hopefully some of the photos will better demonstrate the points that my limited vocabulary would fail to do. If not, it was right good.
Following the fjords, we drove into the Catlins, our luck with the weather running out a little, but not stopping us from reachng the most southerly point of the south island and obligatory photo opportunity on a windswept headland. Accomodation, food, water and general civilisation proved hard to come by for most of the day, however when we did finally settle for the night we ended up in cottage that wouldn't have looked out of place somewhere on the Chatsworth estate. Strange but nice.
Our next day saw us heading north again, initially involving an aborted trip to the Otago Peninsula. Again we encountered limited accommodation so decided to move further north to Oamaru - we had now realised that our policy of turning up and 'sorting something out' might not be without its challenges or equally opportunities as we ended the day penguin watching, having spent part of the afternoon discussing the frustrations of heritage work in NZ with a Dutchman. Penguins were good, weather was cold, beer and hotpot at Victorian pub were welcome...
Further north from Oamaru, we headed to the French settlement of Akaroa on the peninsular running east from Christchurch. All earlier statements about the cooler weather were put to one side as the Australian heatwave hit the South Island and brought with it the smoke from the bushfires and a quite unnatural orangey brown light in the late afternoon.
Following a developing pattern of stopping one night and then moving on in a vain attempt to see all that the south island has to offer, we travelled up to Kaikora home of whales, seals, dolphins and tour boats/planes from which to see them. Caroline decided that being in bed at 6:15 in the morning was preferrable to throwing up 5 miles out to sea, so I headed out alone (with 30 other people) to watch the whales who were in fairness pretty dull compared to the pod of 200-300 dusky dolphins who appeared to have nothing better to do than mess about near our boat and show-off. I was impressed. The whales need to try harder or they will lose their billing on the trip. About 8 of the other 30 were sick at some stage on the trip. I was not and looked on smugly.
Rushing on, we moved back inland to Hamner Springs to unwind in the hotpools. Thankfully no photographs of the two of us in trunks exist, however, we have included a picture of us on the gayest bike in the world which hopefully will satisfy those looking for undignified shots of us. Speaking of which, there may also be a picture of us on the rope slide at Buller Gorge, assuming that our technological capabilities enable us to transfer it from the disc we bought.
So, whistle stop tour of the south island almost complete. A brilliant place, as good as the billing it received from Ian, Jane and others and almost as beautiful as The Lord of the Rings trilogy suggested. The North Island may be a bit more relaxed, ie. we may stay somewhere for more than one night, but it will have a lot to do to beat the last 2 weeks.
RJH
