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

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:

Pebble beach

Pebbles

empty shell...

Mussel up close

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
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After completing the loop around the South Island we were back in Christchurch and spent some time driving around in the area of Christchurch; Geraldine, Ashburton, Oxford, Sheffield, Rangiora etc. Robert sampled through the home made pies such as the ones we found in the Sheffield Pie Shop. From the local town names, it is evident, Robert isn't the first Englishman to have set his foot on this island :)

Another famous pie shop from...... 2002!

We spent a few nights in Christchurch itself and took the opportunity to enjoy the modernities of a large city by going to the cinema, shopping mall and catching a rugby match. Victoria's first rugby match ever! She got a crash course in rules, regulations and the point of the whole game about 30 minutes before it started. Not ever being a big fan of American football it first looked to her as this would be a very similar experience to those dreadful hours endured during university in the U.S when she was 'forced' to attend football games (with no clue of what was going on). Well, perhaps she has 'matured' or perhaps it was because the game is actually different, but she has to say that it was quite enjoyable and exciting! Good experience in all!

Rugby at the stadium in Christchurch

Rugby match!

After Christchurch we decided to go back to Akaroa on the Banks Penninsula about an hour an a half's drive from Christchurch. Our plan was to rent a holiday home for at least a week and get a feel for the small holiday town.

We found a beautiful house that is located on the hillside of town with magnificant views of the bay, mountains and the sea. It's a large house with a total of six beds, so we could have a party here, but it also has a nice fire place, a barbecue and a large sun deck that overlooks the surroundings. From the master bedroom, the French doors open up to the sun deck and it feels like luxury to wake up and having such a wonderful view!

View from the bedroom

Sitting room

kitchen

living room

We have also been very lucky with the weather and it is around 20+C in town and on the sun deck it must reach at least 25+C during the day. So Robert decided to pull out the sun chairs. It took him about 10 minutes to figure out how to assemble them and after Victoria was laughing herself silly observing it all, they finally came together. Well, of course Victoria was left on her own to put her chair together after having laughed so hard, so Robert got a bit of the fun as well, watching her go through the same ordeal.... FINALLY, both the chairs were up though!

Robert about to start the assembly of the chair

Hmmmmm.....

Victoria's turn to struggle with something that seems VERY simple

Robert finally enjoying his chair

Akaroa is a beautiful spot and it's been very nice to be able to cook our own meals instead of eating out. Victoria got elaborate and have tried all sorts of things in the kitchen. A few nights ago it was time for lasagna. We had all the ingredients except for canned tomatoes and the lasagna noodles (two very essential ingredients for lasagna...). So we popped down to the store to get that and discovered that it closed at 6:30pm.... Home made cooking from scratch got even more down to the fundamentals when Victoria had to make her own tomato sauce from fresh ones (they had that at the only cornerstore that was open) mixed with ketchup and make the lasagna with regularly shaped pasta instead of the large noodles. It all turned out to be some kind of.... lasagna casserole....

Robert's hobby here in the house is to feed the little hedgehog who lives under the deck. We saw him the first night shuffling across the yard, so Robert promptly went inside to see if we had any food we could give him. We had some left over egg salad sandwiches from lunch and decided to see if Mr. Hedgehog would like that. Well, the next morning we discovered that hedgehogs really like bread, but not egg salad as he had pushed it off the sandwich and then proceeded to eat the bread. The next evening Robert gave him milk with bread in it and later that night the hedgehog came out and stuffed himself silly on which apparently was more of his cup of tea. We observed him quietly from the kitchen window.

As you can see, not much is going on in our lives if the most exciting event of the day is to make tomato sauce out of fresh tomatoes and feeding hedgehogs..... well, it is probably not harmful for us to take it easy. Victoria has taken up a new hobby of knitting and has gotten quite into it. So far the results include a hat and one sock. Hopefully the enthusiasm won't wear off before she has completed the second sock....

written by  Victoria & Robert on April 21, 2010 from Akaroa, New Zealand
from the travel blog: The rest of the world
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