Sand flies, sea lions, penguins, motorbikes and more!

Yes, we are back in Christchurch after having completed a whole loop around the south island! The last week and a half is a blur of motels, hotels, small towns and lots of time in the car. We've seen many beautiful places, quite a lot of wildlife and met nice people.

After leaving Queenstown, we've driven through and/or stayed in the following towns: Te Anau, Manapouri, Riverton, Invercargill, the Catlins, Balclutha, Dunedin, Palmerston, Oamaru, Waitmate, Fairlie, Geraldine, Ashburton (twice... will explain later), Methven, Akaroa and back to Christchurch.

Rather then listing what we did everyday in chronological order which probably would be quite boring and repetitive, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves with some commentaries.....

From Queenstown we drove to Te Anau and from there to Manapouri where we did a day trip tour out to the Manapouri Power station. We had originally wanted to take an overnight cruise to Doubtful sound but since it was Easter weekend and we wanted to leave the next day, all cruises were booked and therefore we opted for the trip out on Manapouri lake to see the powerstation instead.

Power station at Manapouri lake

The landscape and the lake was beautiful and everything would have been perfect if it wasn't for the little d*@#n sandflies that seemed to be everywhere. The sandflies are really more like a small mosquito ('knott' in Swedish) and both of us got our fair share of bites that are REALLY itchy! Victoria managed to get one sandfly under her shirt and the sandfly went on to have a real feast by biting her seven times on her belly!!!!

Close up of some moss

It's easy to understand why the flies like it here though as it is very moist and rainy and the vegetation is green, lush with lots of ferns, moss and bushes.

Our trip then went south towards Invercargill and we drove through some beautiful parts of the country before we hit the coastline again.

We stopped at a rest stop along the coast and watched the afternoon sun over the ocean.

Once we hit Riverton we stopped for dinner and then drove into Invercargill where we spent two nights. The coastline was spectacular.

Unfortuntately, we had two very cold and rainy days in Invercargill but that was ok because we went to the store and bought Easter chocolates and spent some time eating them in bed in the hotel room!

We also went to E Hayes & Sons Hardware store in Invercargill which is the home to the motorbikes of Burt Munro whose life is portrayed in the movie 'The world's fastest Indian'. We had watched the movie (featuring Anthony Hopkins) in a hotel room just a couple of days before coming to Invercargill so it was very interesting to see the actual bikes. A movie strongly recommended and if you go to Invercargill you should go and see the motorbikes too!

The real bike!

Robert taking a close look at the World's Fastest Indian

After leaving Invercargill we drove along the coast which is called the Catlins. It's a scenic and very beautiful drive and we hoped to have an opportunity to see some wildlife as the south coast is home to penguins of different kinds, sealions, seals and other creatures.

We stopped at a small beach in hopes to see something and even if we hadn't seen anything, the beach was just beautiful.

But wait! What was that over there???! It first looked like smooth rocks on the beach but we discovered it was two groups of sealions sunbathing. We approached them but kept our distance as there was at least on large male with two females and when he sat up he was of a substantial size that instilled respect!

Victoria with sealions in the background

Mr. Sealion with his two girlfriends

Robert staying at a few arms lengths distance

Life is good as a sealion!

As continued driving we approached Dunedin where we spent a night before pushing on towards Oamaru. Oamaru was an interesting little town where part of town is kept the way it looked like many years ago. There are beautiful old buildings and little shops.

Old buildings

Right outside Oamaru, there is a small colony of Blue Penguins which is the world's smallest penguin and we had high hopes to see some and went to the 'Penguin centre'. It turned out they wanted quite a lot of money for us to go and see the little buggers, so we opted to go for a stroll along the beach ourselves.

Beautiful coastal walk

Robert trying to look like a penguin

Victoria imitating a penguin

The coast was gorgeous and would have been well worth the walk without seeing any penguins, but we were lucky and saw a little one huddling in his cave (which they spend evenings and nights in). The penguins are usually out at sea during the day and come back right before dusk, but this little guy had apparently decided to stay in for the day.

Nice view!

Just in case we wouldn't have seen any penguins, Victoria took a picture of the ones in the souvenir shop....

Not real penguins

She also took some 'artsy' photos along the beach:

Our trip now continued into the Cantebury region and we saw some animals; mostly sheep but also some chickens, a hedgehog and deer.

Hedge hog on the road!!!

Robert is saving the hedge hog!

Big elk stag

We spent one night in Geraldine, and one night in Methven before heading towards the Christchurch area. We had breakfast in Asburton outside Methven and Victoria left her purse with EVERYTHING (passports, wallet, credit card, cell phone, address book etc.etc.) at the coffee shop and we didn't realize it was missing until we had driven all the way to Akaroa about 5 hours later....

After a short moment of panic, we called the cafe and thank goodness, they still had the purse! So we only spent one night in Akaroa before heading back to Ashburton again....

Akaroa is worth a mention though as it is one of the places we've visited that we like the most. It's only an hour and a half from Christchurch but still very remote. It is a bit touristy but it is easy to understand why as it is located in the bay of an old volcano and the area is just beautiful!!!!

View from our cottage we stayed at

Robert is enjoying an apple turnover with LOTS of whipped cream...

Fantastic views

From the top of the scenic drive around Akaroa

View over beautiful harbour in Akaroa

So back in Christchurch, we are spending the weekend to relax before deciding what to do next. Victoria found a nice big swimming pool and a shopping mall so she is happy. Robert found a hunting store and is happy too, so we'll see what we come up with by the end of this weekend!!

written by

Victoria & Robert on April 10, 2010 from Christchurch, New Zealand

from the travel blog: The rest of the world

Send a Compliment

Riktig rysare, det här med plånbok och tillbehör och en så oerhört vacker och intressant ö. Ni ser så fina ut.
Kram
Mamma
Jag läser för pappa.

written by Maud Naess on April 10, 2010

Beautiful scenery and photographs. Can understand why you like NZ so much. You both look very well - enjoy the rest of your trip. Mum and Dad

written by Fay Ryan on April 14, 2010

comment on this...