Woke up to slightly better weather, so we did a few chores around Dunedin before heading North. We called Ron and Mel, friends we had met camping in Fiordland, and arranged to go and stay with them on Tuesday. They also told us a good donation campsite to stop at enroute. We made our way to a nice stop on the coast for lunch, and then onwards to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are boulders that started off as small pebbles or shells I think millions of years ago.

I’m sure there is much so more to it than that though, so sorry for the rubbish explanation.

They were nice to see, but the tide was a little high and the sky a pretty grey, so not perfect.

We then moved on to a nice campsite on a Cliff overlooking the beach and had a yummy dinner before retiring to a really nice starry night.

• 0 Comments

Such rubbish weather again today. Definitely does not feel like Summer at all. We left Kaka Point this morning and went to Dunedin. We found out that Aston was playing his final game of Ice Hockey in an international tournament, so we decided we would go see him, neither of us having seen Ice Hockey before. Before that we drove out from Dunedin to the Otago Penninsula to see the Albatross, however the weather was so bad we couldn’t justify the $40 pp charge, so drove back and found a campsite near to the Ice Hockey venue.

We made it to the Ice Hockey and met up with Tony, Astons father, and continued to ask lots of questions about the game, before watching NZ U21’s, with Aston in goal, beat Turkey 16-1. It was great fun and good to see Aston play. It was late when it finished so we grabbed a pizza and headed back to camp.

• 0 Comments

Female sealion

2 Female sealions

Woke up at our nice campsite, packed up and headed off. We met our new friends at the next town, Owaka, and had a coffee before driving to Surat Bay in search of sea lions.

Female sealion

Female sealion

Sealion

We headed off along a track before reaching the beach, a short way along the beach the tide was very high and we took to high ground on the edge of the sand dunes. Well Chris, Phillipp and Silja did, I managed a small mound of sand and a big wave came in and soaked me to knee level. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t wearing trainers! I squelched on until we found our first sea lion, which was hard to spot as half buried in sand.

Female sealion

Female sealion

We walked further, for about 2 ½ hours, and we managed to see 6 in total including 1 massive male swimming in the sea.

Female sealion

Female sealion

Just cannot believe just how huge they are.

Female sealion

Surat Bay

After returning to the car we took a drive to Kaka Point and our next campsite, checked in, had some lunch then went for a drive to Nugget Point to see the lighthouse and amazing views and then more yellow eyed Penguins.

Birds

Us

View from the lighthouse

The lighthouse

Along the walk we saw Fur seals and Elephant seals and more sea lions and at the Penguin hide we saw 6 Penguins.

Yellow-eyed Penguins

Yellow-eyed Penguins

Seals

Yellow-eyed Penguin

All in all a very good wildlife day! We then headed to the pub for a few beers and to watch Chris beat all the locals at pool………..

• 0 Comments

McLean Falls

Waterfall

McLean Falls

We left windy Curio Bay and headed further along the Catlins coast. We made a nice stop and walk at Mcleans falls and then to Niagara Falls before finally finding a really nice campsite for $6.

Read this…

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls!

After a few hours of laundry, we hung our nice clean clothes up just in time for the rain to give them an extra rinse. It wasn’t too bad so we took a track down to the beach, more of a River inlet, and had a long walk in the very strong wind and occasional rain. We were hoping for some seal or sea lion spotting, but all we managed to do was get attacked by two very protective Oyster catcher birds.

A dead crab

A log

Oyster catcher

The beach

Rainbow

We soon realised they had chicks and we were way too close, hence a scene from a Hitchcock classic. We escaped without injury, but just a little scared of these 10 inch tall man eaters. We went back, had a yummy dinner, and got chatting to a nice couple from Switzerland, Phillipp and Silja, before retiring to the warmth of our cosy car.

• 0 Comments

The sign in Bluff

Woke up early and headed from our unknown driveway down to the sea for breakfast. After brekkie we headed towards Invercargill which was a medium city, so we passed through after refuelling.

Curio Bay

We did head down to Bluff, famous for its Oysters, but unfortunately they are not in season, Chris was most disappointed. At Bluff we did visit a cool AA marker showing distances to various places around the world, showing us we were over 18,000km from London.

What the wind did to trees

After leaving Bluff, we continued east along the coast towards Curio Bay, unfortunately the closer we got the worst the weather was; hence we skipped a 40 min walk to Slope Point, the most southerly point on the South Island.

The sea

When we arrived at Curio it was blowing a gale and raining on and off. We checked into a cheap campsite and found the most sheltered spot we could.

Yellow-eyed penguin

Then we headed down to the Petrified Forest which is basically a load of rocks with trees that were turned to stone by volcanic ash millions of years ago.

Penguin trying to get out of river

This was also the spot the Yellow eyed penguins exit the water to feed their chicks, we waited for ages in the cold, windy weather but it was well worth it as we saw 6, some performing hilarious exits from the water and up the rocks.

Yellow-eyed Penguin

After this we retreated to the car, made pasta in the extremely small and busy camp kitchen and hit the hay!

• 0 Comments

Chris collecting mussels

Chris and Ricky

Got up and ate trout and eggs for breakfast, left our friends and headed south for the coast. Found a nice spot by the sea at Colac Bay, and Chris went to collect mussels for dinner, then we went to the pub, got drinking with locals and it all went to shit. Ended up sleeping in someone’s driveway. Got drunk, free night, crazy local. Oh yeah and the mussels were a disaster!

• 0 Comments

Chris got up and went fishing at 06.30am and his luck had obviously run out as he came back without anything but a sad face. So cereal it was for brekkie before going for a nice long walk broken up with a little more unsuccessful fishing. Went then made our way back to camp and made a big fire again and Chris cooked a Butter Chicken curry to share with Ron and Mellissa. Then, feeling optimistic Chris and Ron went fishing and luckily Ron was successful twice, so we have nice trout to look forward to tomorrow morning.

• 0 Comments

Reluctantly left the safety and warmth of Hollyford and went to visit an old swing bridge over-looking a pretty River before going back to Milford due to the sun finally deciding to make an appearance!

So we had the chance to see Milford with clear skies and snow on the tops of the mountains.

To see it properly we would’ve had to go back out on a cruise but that would’ve been a bit pointless so we took a nice walk along the Shoreline and took a million photos on the way back heading south to Monowai lake and camped up next to nice couple, Ron, and Mel and their 7 month old Max.

Chris went fishing, yes fishing, not “ing”, and came back with a nice big trout for dinner, cooked it up with potatoes and salad, EXTRA yummy. Stayed up drinking and chatting to Ron and Mellissa until midnight.

• 0 Comments

Way too cold for me to face the outdoors today. It was even snowing on the mountains outside our camp thus a plan for me to join Chris on another “ing” expedition failed and after just 5 minutes outside I swiftly turned back around and huddled up next to the fire for the day whilst Chris tried (and failed) once again with catching fish for dinner.

I was easily kept entertained though as a 3yr old boy happily destroyed a 1000 piece puzzle almost completed by a Belguim lady whilst she popped out for a few minutes. Completely gobsmacked the boy’s family and myself spent over 5 hours reconstructing it for the devastated lady.

In the evening at around 10pm when it finally became dark Chris and I went for a lovely walk up the tiny country road to have a look at some glow Worms hidden in the bushes under a small Cliff face. No photos possible unfortunately so a memory remembered in our heads. They are so pretty though; look just like loads of stars.

• 0 Comments

Kävelin kaupungilla kovassa pakkasessa ostamassa sitä sun tätä, koska huomenna jätetään mukava guesthouse ja suunnistetaan ulos Ulan Batorin keskustasta asumaan mongolialaisen perheen luokse. Loydettiin tämä vapaaehtoispaikka workaway -sivuston kautta, ja me asutaan perheessä ja opetetaan lapsille englantia ja tietokoneen käyttoä.

Me ollaan myos päästy kokemaan erilaisia kulinaristisia elämyksiä, kuten toissapäivänä syotiin kokonaista lampaan päätä. Veitsella vaan korvat irti pieniksi paloiksi, sekä posket, suu ja kitalaki, kieli, kurkku, niska, otsa, silmät, aivot. Osa maistui ihan hyvälle rasvaiselle lihalle, mutta osa oli niin erikoista ja suussa rutisevaa että piti hiukan sylkeä lautasliinaankin.

Eilen sain ravintolassa eteeni nuudeliannoksen johon oli käytetty erilaisia siasta peräisin olevia ruhonosia, ne ei tahtonut oikein jauhaantua suussa olivat kovin sitkeitä ja lisäksi se liha maistui siltä miltä sikalassa haisee. Voin uskoa, että se liha oli jotain sian peräaukon vierustaa.

Talven lämpotilaennätyksiä on tehty miinuspuolella, pakkanen laskee oisin reiluun -40 asteeseen ja päivisin pysyttelee n. -25 asteen tuntumassa. Muuten pärjää fiksulla pukeutumisella mutta kylmä ja viima ottaa poskipäihin niin että niitä pitää muistaa lämmittää ettei tule paleltumia. Ollaan oltu näin kylmissä säissä jo kaksi viikkoa, eli jossain mielessä tähänkin alkaa tottua.

Ostettiin guest housen avustuksella junaliput Pekingiin menevään junaan ensi kuun alkupäiville. Siihen asti rentoudutaan ja toitä tehdään täällä sinisen taivaan lapsien maassa.

• 0 Comments