Day 78 - Mon 25th May: Doubtful Sound

Went for a cruise around Doubtful Sound today (technically none of the Sounds are sounds, they're all fjords, but they never bothered to change the names). There's an underground hydroelectric power station here. They can generate enough electricity in a day here to provide all the day's electricity for the South Island, but only 15% of the energy makes it to the national grid. The other 85% goes to one customer....an aluminium smelting company down the road as they need a shed load of energy to process the pure aluminium. FACT!

Day 77 - Sun 24th May: Lunch, Te Anau

As well as having spectacular scenery, great wildlife and Maori culture, New Zealand also makes great pies (Kiwis seem to be obsessed with pie). They make all kinds of flavours and this one was a venison pie - very tasty. Also for lunch, a good old Gala (from NZ, of course) and some L&P - a lemonade made in Paeroa. Where "the paradoxical advertising slogan "World famous in New Zealand" has become a popular New Zealand saying meaning very well known locally, but not receiving recognition overseas" (Wikipedia)

Day 76 - Sat 23rd May: Oyster Festival, Bluff

The Bluff Oyster Festival is an annual event for the town and quite a big deal for them. You can sample all kinds of local fish and they also run competitions to find out the quickest oyster sheller and eater. But....

[Quite a few people are getting their picture taken with this man. We're left wondering why - perhaps he's a local celebrity?]

Me: Excuse me, we're from out of town and we've noticed that quite a few people would like their picture taken with you. Are you someone famous?

Man: Hello! Yes, I'm John Key! [Said with an expectation of I'll know him now]

Me: Ok. [Giving a look of 'oh-that's-nice-but-still-slightly-confused-as-you-who-you-are-but-I-think-I-recognise-you-from-somewhere'].

Man: ....the Prime Minister!

Me: Ohhhhh!!! [Giving a look of 'of-course-you-are-I-thought-I-recognised-you-how-silly-of-me']

He's a pretty friendly guy and we had a quick chat, where he welcomed me to New Zealand and we chatted about the places I've liked in NZ so far.

* John Key endorses Bluff Oyster Festival

Day 75 - Fri 22nd May: Ulva Island, off Stewart Island

Popped over to Ulva Island where bird life flourishes due to a lack of natural predators. As well as seeing plenty of birds, this sea elephant cruised up to the shore for a nap. It's absolutely massive and our boat driver told us that the creature is only 5 years old, so he's not even full size yet!

Day 74 - Thurs 21st May: On the boat to Stewart Island

Here's a pic of the captain driving/sailing/ferrying (?) a boat over to NZ's third biggest island, Stewart Island (pop. 400).

Yes Bhav....he was papped.

Day 73 - Weds 20th May: Somewhere between Dunedin and Invercargil

As you can imagine there's loads of sheep around in NZ. I've been here 1.5 months now and I'm just surprised I haven't posted any pics of them yet...here's one now.

Day 72 - Tues 19th May: Wildlife Tour, near Dunedin

Went on a wildlife tour in the Dunedin coastal area and saw some yellow-eyed penguins, seals, sea lions and albatrosses. It was REALLY windy today and here's a pic of my friends Laura (left) and Briony (right) battling the elements.

Day 71 - Mon 18th May: Railway Station, Dunedin

You can catch the historic Taieri Gorge Railway from here and apparently this is NZ's most photographed building. I'm not quite sure how they measure that, but I've now obviously added to the count.

Day 70 - Sun 17th May: Baldwin Street, Dunedin

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Baldwin Street in Dunedin is the steepest street in the world. "How steep?" I hear you ask. It's got an average gradient of 1 in 3.41.

This driver got almost to the top, but due to slow moving traffic in front they had to stop. Cue a bit of a struggle (and panic) in doing one of the world's hardest hill starts.

Day 69 - Sat 16th May: Queenstown

Pretty grey and miserable today in Queenstown, you could say it was good weather for ducks.

Day 68 - Fri 15th May: Wanaka

Some berries in a tree. One for those depth-of-field fans.

Day 67 - Thurs 14th May: Skate Park, Wanaka

Before you ask Bhav, he wasn't papped - permission was granted.

Day 66 - Weds 13th May: Lake Matheson and Mt. Cook

One of the most cliched shots to take from NZ, but it's still worth it - pity there's some cloud cover on the mountains

Day 65 - Tue 12th May: The Internet Bus, Franz Josef

Internet access + old bus = The Internet Bus

Day 60 - Thurs 7th May: Was in Westport but this isn't a pic from Westport

Didn't take any pics today and forgot about this, hence the order of the blog posts is slightly messed up now. Here's a bonus pic from Day 63: glacier guide Turtle strikes a pose

Day 64 - Mon 11th May: Top of Franz Josef

Took a helicopter ride over both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. Here's the (chilly) view from the top

Day 63 - Sun 10th May: Franz Josef Glacier

Check out this awesome ice cave in the glacier.

I could reel off a few facts about the glacier, here's one: the ice is so compressed that it has very little air in it. This causes certain waves of light to be refracted back to us, hence it's blue hue.

Day 62 - Sat 9th May: Lake Mahinapua

Another lake (see Day 59)...with another cracking view.

Day 61 - Fri 8th May: Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki

The 'pancake' layering of these limestone rocks are created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments. FACT!

Day 59 - Weds 6th May: Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes

A lake. With a view.

Day 58 - Tues 5th May: The Centre of NZ, Nelson

This point represents the geographical centre of New Zealand. I have no idea how they decided this, and Wikipedia states:

"This supposed "centre" was simply the convenient starting point for the original trigonometrical surveys of the South Island. The true geographical centre lies in a patch of unremarkable dense scrub in a forest in Spooners Range near Tapawera, 35 kilometres south-west of Nelson".

So, it's not really the centre of NZ. That's false advertising.

Day 57 - Mon 4th May: Wharariki Beach, Farewell Spit area

Stunning beach scenery around the Farewell Spit area (thanks to Stef for the tip) with undulating sand dunes. Down at Wharariki Beach you get a few seals playing around in the rock pools

Day 56 - Sun 3rd May: Somewhere between Nelson and Takaka

I was driving on up to Takaka when I came across this old-car-now-giant-pot-plant-thingy

Day 55 - Sat 2nd May: Nelson

I haven't had a sun-setter picture up here for a while. Get your fix now, with this view from the coastline of Nelson

Day 54 - Fri 1st May: Abel Tasmin Park and Golden Bay

Hired a car with a few friends and went driving around Abel Tasmin Park and the Golden Bay area (great scenery, pics will be on FlickR one day in the future).

Here's us (l-to-r: Emily, Dan, Jenna, Me) larking around.

I was inspired by this guy: http://runningfromcamera.blogspot.com/

Day 53 - Thurs 30th April: WOW Museum, Nelson

As some of you may know, I have a slight obession with 'Back to the Future' and today a dream came true. For the first time in my life I got up close to a real, road-going DeLorean. A guy in Nelson has a shedload of money and buys all kinds of classic cars and puts them in his museum.

Look at that stainless steel shine!


Note: Flux capacitor not included on this model.

Day 52 - Weds 29th April: On the ferry to Picton

Caught the interisland ferry to get to the South Island today.
You've seen 'Snakes on a Plane' (and '...on a Train'), would 'Cows on a Boat' help revive the franchise?

Day 51 - Tues 28th April: Te Papa Museum, Wellington

Went to the Te Papa museum today and there's loads to see there, including the world's biggest squid. Here's a pic of a big window at the museum, with a man sitting there reading his paper.