Christchurch

The first few pics are places on a day trip to Akaroa (the light house pic).
The last three pics are taken in the City Centre. Note the canoe ride down the Avon river and a little stop in a Belgium bar for 'Frites and Mayonnaise' and obviously some of their best beer (Leffe for me and Kriek for Elvis).

The city is renowned for its very English feel - even some of the streets have British names. It was a beautiful day and we spent it strolling through the parks and markets - fantastic!

Lake Tekapo

After Mt Cook we visited Lake Tekapo - again - beautiful scenery and that same blazing turquois colour of the lake's waters.

Mount Cook

The mighty Mt Cook at 3755m is the highest peak in Austalasia. No - before you ask, we didn't climb it! Just looking at it is enough, it's a wonderful sight with glorius surrounding landscape and a lake (Pukaki) with the most beautiful blue colour.
The lake is coloured by sediment called 'rock flour' which was created when the lake base was gorged out by a stoney bottomed glacier. No special effects were used!!

Brain Rocks - Moeraki

These boulders are another strange phenomenon from these parts - the scientists aren't quite sure why they look like this - but of course they have their theories. This was just down the road from a little restaurant named Fleur's - recently visited by Rick Stein (of Chef'ery fame)

Dunedin City

Dunedin is the South Island's second largest city and home of NZ's first university.

The city was founded by Scottish settlers and has a statue of Robert Burns guarding its centre. Dunedin is Celtic for "Edinburgh'.

There is lots of Victorian architecture in the city with a magnificent railway station. There's even a beautiful beach, St Clair that has a heated outdoor saltwater pool.

You'll notice Keith having a wee dram of whiskey - well he started the day with a bailey's coffee at Jill's house - so it would have been rude not to have a dram in the Whiskey bar

Finally - a free cup of tea to anyone who can tell us the name of the worlds steepest street (a gradient of 1.266).

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Dunedin - Jill and Judy - Thanks to you two!

This is Jill (left) and her sister Judy. We met Jill and her husband Noel at the Fiji resort 'Octopus' and they gave us their details and asked us to call in and see them when we were around Dunedin. Unfortunately Noel was away doing that 'work' thing(can't remember what that's all about). We enjoyed a scrumptious home-cooked meal and a few glasses of wine, combined with good conversation about books and all our recent cinema visits the evening was just grand.

Jill very kindly offered her new washing machine and we had a very comfy night in a 'proper' bed!

Thanks Jill for making us so welcome in your home and for your warm hospitality.

Dunedin - Otago Peninsula

This is the beautiful peninsula that skirts around the side of Dunedin - we were going to visit the city - but the weather was so good we decided to do this part first.

The peninsula has a reputation as the most accessible wildlife are on the South Island - yellow-eyed penguins, blue penguins, fur seals, sea lions. We saw seals and seal lions but think it is a myth, some kind of tourist trap about these penguins! We've now been to a few of the 'penguin inhabited' areas and have seen.....NONE!

We drove around the harbourside of the peninsula and back over the top using the high winding road - (nerves were fraught in the campervan!).

The first pictures are from a walk we did across a big hill and down to the beach - the last picture is from the 'high road'.

We also visited a Royal Albertross nesting site - but there wasn't any home!! What a surprise!