Dinosaur Egg

At least that's what we told James it was. This is one of the Moeraki Boulders.

Engage Low Gear Now

Lucky we have 4WD.

Another Gratuitous Tourist Shot

On the way through Dunedin I couldn't resist taking Sarah to Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world. The gradient is 1 in 2.86 (35%)!

Purakaunui Falls

The Catlins were beautiful, I just wished we had longer to explore them. James enjoyed this short walk in the bush to a waterfall.

Petrified Wood

At Curio Bay is a petrified forest, this log is 180 million years old!

Yellow Eyed Penguin

As part of our flying tour of the south coast we visited a petrified forest on the coast where we saw this very rare yellow eyed penguin.

Gratuitous Tourist Shot

At Bluff, near Invercargill is the start of SH1. It is mandatory to have your photo taken next to this sign post.

Giant Paua Shell

Just outside Riveron is this large sculpture of a paua shell. The interior is actually coated with real Paua shell.

Stewart Island

The whole south coast drive was great, the beaches were fantastic. We saw lots of surfers at this spot and Stewart Island in the distance.

Gemstone Beach

We are travelling back via the south coast on the 'southern scenic route'. We found this great spot called gemstone beach. It is a lovely spot with wild waves and the mountains of fiordland in the distance. The beach is made up of tiny gemestones, just a couple of millimetres across. Amongst them are jasper, garnets and sapphires!

Manapouri Power Station

The power station is very impressive. It generates 850MW and is operated by a handful of people. It is controlled remotely from Twizel.

Under the Mountain

On the way back we visited Manapouri power station. Access is via a 2km spiral tunnel that took us 200m underground. James loved the idea of the bus driving into the mountain. Thanks to Ivor the Engine, he thinks dragons live inside mountains.

The Sound of Silence

For a couple of minutes the captain turned off the engines and asked everyone to be quiet so that we could experience the 'Sound of Silence'. Doubtful sound is a real wilderness, cut off from the road network so the only people on the vast body of water are those in the two or three boats on the water. With the engines off, all we could hear was the soft rain falling on the calm waters of the sound. Even James was quiet. It was quite a magical experience.

Happy Campers

Despite the weather we all had a good time.

Lots of Waterfalls

Wet

The captain steered the boat under one of the waterfalls so we could get a drink of water. James thought this was hilarious. Good job Tracy was wearing her drizabone.

Entrance to the Sound

Doubtful sound is actually a fjiord so it is very narrow with steep sides. Captain Cook never entered it as he feared it was doubtful he would be able to get back out again: hence the name. This is the view of the entrance from the Tasman sea.

Rain = Waterfalls

Looking from a glass half full point of view, the rain does make the whole environment more dramatic. And we all really enjoyed the day.

On the Sound

This is about as sunny as it got all day. Still even under grey skies and heavy rain the views were great.

Doubtful Sound

Doubtful we would see anything that is. This is the view from the bus as we drove from the lake to the sound.

Blue Skies?

Occasionally the skies cleared slightly and gave hints of the snow topped mountains.

Lake Manapouri

The road to Milford will be closed for days so we decided to take the boat trip to Doubtful Sound. This involves a boat trip across lake Manapouri, followed by a bus connection to another boat on Doubtful Sound.

Tracy and I have done this trip twice before and both times it poured with rain. I was hoping for clear skies but the weather did not look very promising.

Double Rainbow

As we drove back to TeAnau, the weather cleared and we saw this great double rainbow. The second one is a lot fainter and just above the main one.

Mirror Lakes

My second attempt at HDR photography.

Holyford Valley

We had planned to visit Milford Sound but my sister is the ultimate tourism jinx. Just before we arrived heavy rains caused a big slip on the road to Milford. They also flooded the TeAnau glowworm caves so we were a bit stuck. We went for a drive up the Milford road to see how far we could get. It is a very scenic drive.

This is the view just before the big slip. It is my first attempt at HDR photography. I am not sure about the results, it is quite dramatic but a bit artificial looking.