the East Coast of the South Island

1. hector dolphins

2. hector dolphins

3. rugby - scrum (after an off side or penalty or something)

4. rugby - field goal kick (for 3 points after getting 5 for a try or a penalty of some sort)

5. rugby - a line-up (after the ball goes out of bounds)

6. Christchurch Cathedral (Anglican- as that was who the settlers were from the UK, though some were Irish)

7. haggland- transportation in the Antarctic

8. Crusaders rally

9. old building in Christchurch

10. Captain Cook in Victoria ark

11. Moeraki Rocks (mini devil's marbles, but formed differently)

12. Little blue penguins in their nest

13. Little blue penguin in its nest

14. Ian, Kate and Jessica O'Brien family ( my Oamaru stay)

15. penguin crossing sign - notice anything weird?

16. old fire truck in the Dunedin Museum

17. Baldwin Street- steepest street in the World

18. mutton roast and all the fixings

19. NZ sea lions

20. this guy was charging toward me- scary cause they can move 20 km/hr!

21. penguins coming out of the water after swimming 50 km for food all day

22. penguins climbing the hill to nest for the night

23. look closely- the rocks are covered with NZ fur seals

24. old building Dunedin

25. YHA Dunedin - Stafford Gables

26. notice anything funny???

27. baby albatross

28. yellow-eye penguin

All right I know it has been awhile and you probably think I am stuck on Stewart Island, but I am far away and back on the North Island, enjoying the laziness of working my way back to Auckland..

So I left us leaving Stewart Island where I headed to Invercargill for one night (and watched Indiana Jones) and then off again on the bus to Dunedin, college capital of New Zealand and one the capital or largest city or something like that... there are a ton of old Victorian and Edwardian homes , but mostly it thrives as a college town. The day I arrived I went for a walking tour of the town and a tour of the Olveston House. A classic stately home with 35-rooms built between 1904 and 1906by a well traveled and prosperous importer. It was bequeathed to the city in 1966 and has been carefully maintained in its original state. Lots of neat old stuff in there. That evening, if you can believe this, I paid $10 to have a soak in a tub!! Ahh the relaxation!! Loved it!

The next day I found some scrapbooking stuff, so Natalie get ready to help me do this when I get home.. the afternoon and evening was spent on Elm Wildlife tours hunting down baby albatrosses, yellow-eyed penguins, NZ fur seals and NZ sea lions... It was a great day and we got a little to close to the sea lions than I liked, but not close enough to the penguins and fur seals. Dunedin hosts a few museums, of which I went to a couple and according the the Guinness book of world records, the World's Steepest Street... I think San Fran has a street or two that would compete.

Off I went to Oamaru and stayed with Julie (my renter) 's brother, Ian and sister-in-law,Kate, They were great host for a couple of nights. They have a lovely "lifestyle" farm and Kate took me hunting for the Little Blue penguin. She cooked a lovely mutton roast supper with Kumera (yams), potatoes, pumpkin, mint peas, and gravy with a lovely ice cream desert one night ans steak the next.. so tasty!!! Kate also took me to the Moeraki Boulders and Katiki point (dragging her daughter Jessica!) to where we saw seals and yellow eyed penguins and with her keen eye two nests with the little Blue Penguin cowering inside. I got a couple great photos!! I had a nice relaxing time at the house... ahhhh...

I caught the morning bus to Christchurch, where I seemed to spend the majority of my visit trying to arrange the details for my trip to the Islands. hank god I found a patient lady! I did a little walk around the main part of town and found myself in Cathedral Square in the huge Anglican Church attending an Evensong service. The entire half hour service was sung by the men's choir. It was rather a neat experience in an amazing setting.

I spent a morning in the Antarctic Center which is a very cool place to see if you ever think you may have an inkling to spend some time on Antarctica. There are a few different exhibits that actually let you feel what it is like to be there, including a cold room, full of snow in which a blizzard happens once every hour and you can add in added wind chill on a machine if you so desired. Part of the tour included a ride on the Hagggland truck. A large vehicle used to travel over the ice, at 45 degree angles over 1.6 meter crevasses and into water 4 feet deep!! Here they also have a blue penguins colony of saved penguins.

The afternoon I went on a walk of New Zealand's first officially organized ans designed city, which included bringing over 4 ships of settlers. Amazing old historic buildings. Stone on the outside and beautiful wood on the outside. When we got back to the square there was a rally for the big rugby game with horses and a live band and photos with the cup. How exciting!

I headed out to Akaroa for a day trip and a boat ride to view the worlds smallest and near extinct hector dolphin. Akaroa is the only French settlement in all of NZ. The french we going to settle this whole coast but the efforts were thwarted by the swift British, but in the end they were "allowed" to settle on this peninsula and decided to stay. The boat ride was great, we saw 3-4 pods of dolphins and some white flippered penguins (though from afar). This would be a nice get-away from the city town, but I on;y had about an hour and a half to walk around before and after the bus arrival and departure.

We got back to town at 6:00 and I had enough time to grab a bite and cab my way down to the stadium to the Super 14 Rugby Final/ Championship Game.. I have to tell you I knew nothing about the game going in and thanks the the gentleman on my left and a young Maori girl on the right I have it all under wraps now.. It doesn't make a lot of sense to watch after seeing football and soccer games, but when put into perspective it actually isn't too bad a game. It went pretty smoothly with two 40 minute halves and very few referee whistles and neat line-ups and lifting each other, scrums, trys, and goal kicks. The home team won (beating Australia) for their 7th title, their coach is now off to Coach the Australian National rugby team- the Wallabys (opposite to the NZ All Blacks) and two other members going off to bigger and better things.. the crowd was reminiscent of a football game drinking the beer and dressed with a dozen layers to keep warm. It was a fun night!

then off I flew to the North Island and on my way to Auckland.

The South of the South Island

1. Weka

2. flying albatross (wingspan can be as much as 3 meters and they are about 1.5 meters head to tail!)

3. more albatross

4. sunset at Stewart Island

5. kiwi bird (come on it is there, you just have to see it!!)

6. albatross (they love the free fish!

7. fishing

8. the cod supper I caught and cooked!

9. aurora australis (the Southern lights- well a photo of a photo. I guess the best time to see them is during their spring)

10. tuatara ( he is a 100 years old!)

11. church (old building in Invecargill). I love churches.. the windows and such.

12. old phone on Stewart Island!

13. most southern golf course in NZ (6 holes, $5 green fee!)

14. homer tunnel (build by men returning from war to earn their EI, rather than being given it for free!)

15. NZ fur seal in Milford Sound

16. neat rocks carved out by water

17. erased a perty picture of the drive to Milford Sound

18. kea - bird will eat anything

19. Te Aneau

20. mirror lakes

21. Mitre peak Milford Sound

22. Waterfall Milford Sound

23. para sail shute

24. Queenstown

25. LOTR site

26. LOTR site

27. flotation chamber

So where was I? Ahhh Larry and Dixie deserted me in Queenstown (JK), as they headed off to Christchurch to catch their flight. All is well. I am back to hostel life and moving every couple of days, but I have sure seen some interesting things in the last while.

My first adventure was going para sailing. I thought it was going to be as scary as jumping out of a plane, but not at all. It was fun and relaxing the whole time. I have a DVD with some photos, but am having issues getting them downloaded to this page, so you will have to check them out another time. I also went up the Queenstown gondola and caught up on my journal and enjoyed the views for the afternoon, which turned into the evening and even had more fantastic night views of the city. This place is made for anyone who wants to do ANYTHING!!

I went for a bus ride out of town to Arrowtown for the morning and checked out this old gold mining town, basically supported by immigrant Chinese miners. The area of town they live in still has the buildings they made standing. Their "houses" were like 5 feet by 5 feet. that included their kitchen and bedroom. A cool thing about this place was it was used for filming parts of Lord of the Rings, so I went to check out those places.

When I returned to the city, I had my greatest adventure yet! I had a flotation massage! The weirdest thing ever. One showers to clear off any lotions etc, then one climbs into the chamber and lays back and you float. The water is about 30 inches deep and (I am sure the lady said) with 30 kilos of salt... so you just float. The weirdest thing... then I had a great hour long massage to finish it off. My kind of adventure!

My next journey was to Te Aneau and Milford Sound. Not much to do in Te Aneau, as it is the start of the treks in the area, so I went walking around the "village" for 4 hours, checking the local birds and loving the view. I also took in a movie make about the "sounds" in New Zealand by a local helicopter pilot. It was pretty neat.

Milford Sound was a pretty neat place. Though misnamed by Mr. Cook, as it is actually a fiord carved by passing glaciers and not water erosion, or whatever this difference is.. It was an in between day, from what I am told, as it was a pleasant but cloudy day, and the best days are on sunny days or on rainy days. When the sun shines everything sparkles and when it rains the waterfalls pour down the water off the sheer rock cliffs. It was a nice way to spend a clam 2 hours on the water (less the 10 minutes when we went on to the Tasman sea and almost flipped over! NOT)

Off I went to Invecargill and my stepping stone to Stewart Island. I went to the South land museum there and little did I know that not only are there the two main islands of NZ, and little Stewart Island, but NZ possesses 4 or 5 other Islands that they refer to as the subarctic islands. These islands were manned for many years for fear that they would be taken over by another country, but as well were stocked with supplies because so many ships were wrecked hitting the islands and people would be marooned for up to 2 years before they were saved! Here to is house the near extinct Tuatara. It is a prickly lizard related to the dinosaurs. the museum is involved in breeding them and trying to get their numbers increased in the world. They can live to be over 100 years old and are incredibly slow twitchers! They move slower than anything you can imagine, like hmmm.. me on the ice! JK.. Invecargill also has some amazing old buildings, so I did a historical walk through town in the rain! I also got to meet up with a guy I met in the hostel in Queenstown. We had some drinks in an Irish pub and I had an amazing shrimp supper.

Off I went to Stewart Island the most southern island in New Zealand. A weird little place with a ton of character. Stewart Island is about 2 times the size of Singapore , but only has 380 residents and only 2% of the island is inhabited. 85% of the island is a national park and 17% is owned by the Maori, but not used so much. The island's power was run off generators until 1989, they got a single line phone system in the early 1990"s and then a sewer system in about 1992! They still collect rainwater on their roofs to use for drinking and home use! It really is a throw back to the days of yore. I stayed with a funky NZ couple in a B&B, which was relaxing. There are a ton of great walks here but it was cold and I was lazy so I didn't do any long ones. (That is one thing I will do when I return to NZ, some of their famous tracks)

So on my quest to see animals in their natural habitat, I went on an evening outing to search for kiwis. It was a neat experience and we had a great guide, named Philip, who was quite knowledge able. We got to see 4 kiwi birds in different areas and different genders too. My photos are crap though because we couldn't use our flash as it would scare them away, so I am hoping on of the other people on the walk got a great photo, otherwise I will just have to remember on a postcard! The next day I ended up on a fishing boat, fishing for cod! I actually caught a few, and after the ride got to take the fish home! I also went for a quick one hour hike on Ulva island, which has had all predators removed from it to allow for the native NZ birds (most of which do not fly) to grow and prosper. I had a weird experience when I wand knelt down taking a photo of a saddleback bird and a Weka walked right passed my knee..Scared the bejesus out of me!

Stewart Island was neat place. I shall return one day! Then I left the bottom of New Zealand and headed back towards the North. I hope it means warmer weather as it has been cold and rainy... not what I dreamed about for my holiday.. BUT is is so beautiful here and only 3 more weeks until I hit the islands!

I hope all is well at home and you are all healthy, wealthy and wise!!