New Zealand Index

Auckland
Northland
Heading South
Wellington
Traveling again
West Coast
Picking Apples
Road to Qtown
Kinloch
Southland
Queenstown
Heading North
Queen Charlette Wilderness Park
to Taranaki
Central Plateau
The End

So the day finally came, George was arriving. It was amazingly smooth. I walked into the airport, and as I was starting to look for where he was coming in, there he was right in front of me. So, we picked up his bag, my snowboard, and headed into town. We checked into a hostel and then headed to town to find something to eat and drink. This day was pretty much just made up of catching up, having a drink or two, and then George was a little jet lagged, so her went to bed early. The next day was the start of our adventure. Out first stop was Te Annu, the gateway to the Sounds. So this was a small little town, and after walk around it a little, we stopped by the DOC office, and found ourselves a nice little walk. It was the beginning of the Kepler track, and a nice walk, thought forest to a lake. That night, we found a hostel, soaked in a really nice spa, and then went out and had a few drinks with most of the people I had worked in Kinloch with. So where to next, that was our dilemma. Milford sound was one idea, but it would have taken another day, and the weather wasn’t the best, and we had a very tight schedule. So we opted to drive the southern scenic route, and see the southland coast, and arrive at Invercargil that day. OUR drive was nice and we stopped at every place that we could think of, a historic bridge, Monkey Island, and we tried to go to a tractor museum, but it was closed. So we got to Invercargil fairly early. We had lunch and then proceeded to the museum, In the same building as the museum is the Tuatara house. Tuataras are a ancient and rare NZ reptile, that can live for as long as 150 years in captivity. The star here in Henry, he’s over 100 years old. They also have some cool exhibits about the history of the area, including how they used to make oil out of penguins. After that we drove down to bluff, the southern most town on the island. We did a nice short walk until the wind almost blew us off the treck, and then decided to head back and find a place for the night. Then next day we were heading into the Catlins, a very scenic part of Southland. Our first stop was Slope Point. This is the most southern part of the south island. To get there we walked through a nice little sheep felt, and then was came to a nice cliff, and the sign post that was the point. After the point, our next stop was Curio Bay. This is one of the most extensive fossil forests (160 million years old) in the world. This forest is the proof of New Zealand’s place in Gondwanaland, as similar plant species have been found in South America. Next we stopped at McLean Falls. After a nice 20 min walk, we come upon a very nice Waterfall. Our last stop of attractions this day was, Jack’s Blowhole. This was a 55 meter hole in the middle of sheep fields, 200 meters inland from the sea. Cool blowhole, if only the sea was more violent to see it really go. Done with sites for the day, we decided to find a place to stay. We found this really nice little hostel, in the middle of the Catlins, very out of the way, with a nice fire and close to the beach. It was quite a nice relaxing place. The following morning after getting ready to leave we took a walk down the beach, and just about at the end, found a rather nice Sea Lion, sitting on the beach. At least he made the walk well worth it. So having seen some of the see life here, we headed on our way around the coast. Our first and stop was an old train historic train tunnel, a nice little divertion right off the road. Then we went to Nugget Point, where we dove around up these back roads until we found then end of the road where we parked and took a walk up to the end of the point, where a lighthouse was. There were all kinds of great sea life there, though no penguins. After this, we headed up towards Dunedin, and there wasn’t much of interest until we reached it. Then we arrived in Dunedin. It was nice to get to a city again. First we decided to find a hostel, and the only real choice was the one with the resident Ghost. This place was quite nice, if very empty. We then set out to wonder the streets. We had a couple of small breweries we wanted to find, and that was our game plan. But after a while we found these places wither closed or not really bars. So we decided to grab dinner, and then head back to the hostel. We had planned on chilling for a while, having a couple drinks, and then seeing what the nightlife. Well this plan didn’t quite work out either, as we drank an entire bottle of rum between the two of us before 11pm. On the bright side we did get up fairly early. And after we had breakfast decided to go out to the Otago peninsula. This was a really nice drive out, where we did see penguins off to the side of the road. We were going to try and go to a penguin colony, but we found out the the next tour was going to be in like five hours, so we decided not to do it here. We continued on to the end, there there was an interpretive center, and looked around a bit. Then we headed north. Our next stop was the Moeraki Boulders. These are really cool rocks. They are like giant marbles, just sitting in the surf. Really quite something, and the café is designed to look like the boulders. Cool. So then we headed for the destination of the day, Omaru. Once we got into town and found a place to stay, we headed to the Blue-eyed penguin colony. This was a really cool, all these little penguins washing up onto shore, and waddling to there nests. We probably stayed there over an hour. They didn’t allow cameras, so it’s kinda hard to do it justice. After when we pulled in the parking lot of the hostel, what do we see but a little penguin running around. It was really neat to get so close, but we were wondering why it was here, a few blocks away from the ocean. We soon found out that they had a next in an abandoned garage next to the lot. This defiantly was a nice cap for the night. The next day was about making it back to Queenstown. This was a mostly uneventful drive, and we didn’t really stop till Wanaka. Here we went to puzzle world, where they had a maze. Then we drove back to Queenstown. This last night George was here, we went out, and had a few drinks, and saw the nightlife a little. The next day George left, and my life in Queenstown was about to begin.