The Caitlins, Te Anau and Milford Sounds

The Caitlins is the southern coastline of the South Island. First stop here was in Owaka - a 2 street town but we headed out to Surat Bay and were lucky to find a family of Hooker Sea Lions. They were much bigger and more active than the Fur Seals and at one point one of them decided it didn't want anyone on his patch of beach and suddenly ran towards us and some other people - we very quickly got away from him - they move with some speed and at about 500kg we didn't want one of them on top of us!!

Hard to believe that the tiny little pup at the front of this photo will turn into one of those big monsters....

We spent ages watching this family of Sea Lions who seemed to go from slumbering sleeps, to playful bites and chases to actually becoming quite aggressive with each other.

Posing for the family portrait!!

This bike had obviously not been used in a while and was being used as a fence.

Having thrown our map out of the window whilst trying to kill a spider Andrea was sent to retrieve it - it just might be useful given there long periods of driving with no signs of civilisation down here - not to count the fact we didn't want to leave litter in this beautiful area!!

The Purakaunni Falls - we are told these are one of the most photographed waterfalls in New Zealand but lack of recent rain didn't make them too impressive for us.

The view over Jack's Bay on the walk up to Jacks Blow Hole.

Jack's Blowhole - this is a cave which runs 200m inland from the coast - at high tide and during storms the water rushes into the cave and makes an echoing sound.

A big bee covered in pollen.

Next day we did the Caitlins River Walk - we got lucky as it was quite wet when we got up and the forecast was for rainy showers all morning but by the time we got dropped at the end of the track to walk back the weather had pretty much cleared up. We had to cross quite a lot of these swing bridges during the walk.

Chom Poo Moo investigates the Purple mushroom - she decided it wasn't her colour.

There were loads of different types of mushrooms on this walk - as much as I think some of them are pretty when it comes to eating them I still think they are the 'Devils Spawn'!!

Just to prove I am not the only sad person who takes photographs of things like mushrooms!!

Some different and nice plant life along the river bank as we walked along.

Walking through the needle bushes trying not to get stabbed.....

Chom Poo Moo, Olivia and Caterpillar (both Silke's travelling companions) see if they can find any new friends in this tree trunk....

Lake Pounawea next to the camper site we were staying at.

Andrea (affectionately known as Dobbie after the very excitable little elf in Harry Potter) gets excited (again) when she finds some discount coupons that we can use for one of our planned activities - she is also known at "The Coupon Lady'!!

Can you believe the Silke had never had a Cadbury's Creme Egg - though I don't think it was to her liking - she said she is sweet enough without all that extra sugar.....

Nugget Point - one of the south coasts landmarks - with the lighthouse and big rocky islets - again we got lucky with the weather as the sun did come out here before we left - though it was still quite windy.

Think this workman was a little bemused by the 3 mad woman in the camper who were taking his photo....

A little further along The Caitlins coast we visited The Cathedral Caves - one of the main tourist highlights - these are two big sea caves that open into each other at the back and were seemingly named as they resembled a cathedral (didn't quite see that myself!!). They are only accessible for a few hours each day due to the tides so we had to get our timing right or get wet!!

Andrea and Silke at the entrance to the caves.

Though the caves were nice I think they didn't quite live up to our expectations given the tourist hype around them - so we entertained ourselves for a while on the beach by seeing who could come up with the funniest/silliest photo poses!!

As you can see the funny/silly photo poses continued after we left the beach and have become an amusement way for us to break up our drives....

The MacLean Falls.

Chom Poo Moo and I get close to nature.....

Lots of interesting birds on the side of the roads as you drive around New Zealand.

Although out of focus I like this photo as it catches this little bird doing a mad sprint.

We stopped of at Curio bay to see if we could swim with the Hector Dolphins who hang out here - but we didn't spot them and it was too cold and windy to go in the water....

I almost didn't get away from these waves in time....

Silke wasn't as lucky and got wet.....

No dolphins but we did find some more Sea Lions on the beach.

The Petrified Forest - over 180 million years old which you can only see at low tide just outside Curio Bay. It has remains of tree stumps which some scientists believe are related to trees that now grow in South America and are used as evidence to show that New Zealand pulled away from Gondwanaland with the South American continent.

We also spotted some penguins enjoying a swim in the rock pools here.

And a closer look found some interesting little fish and other life in the rock pools as well.

An Oyster Catcher and her chick.

Chom Poo Moo got a little tangled in the big sea weed at eh Petrified Forrest.

Slope Point - the most southern point in New Zealand.

These trees were definetely a little wind worn!!

Some more silly poses on the drive up to Te Anua - this is a giant Paua shell. Paua shells are one of the most colourful shells around and over here you get loads of jewellery and other handmade crafts made of these - which I have to say I found hard to resist - so I have a few new additions to my jewellery collection!!

Andrea almost misses her bus.

The sunset on the coast as we drive towards Te Anau.

We couldn't pass Tautapere - New Zealand's sausage capital - and not stop and taste the sausages - which were given the thumbs up by Silke - as Germans are sausage crazy that has to be a good sign.

Getting pecked at Te Anau.

Having been told by so many people that Milford Sounds is one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand it of course had to be visited - these photographs were taken on the drive up to Milford - and yet again I was not disappointed by with one of New Zealands treasures.

The view from the Milford Sound Deep Water Basin.

Badly spelt sign post.....

There are a few ways to see the sites of Milford Sounds - a 4 day fairly hard trekk (which we didn't have time/equipment/or the will for), from the air or from the water - so we opted for another Kayake trip. As the clouds cleared and the sun came out we got some great views and had some good fun out on the water.

Another silly pose at one of the look out points.

There were so many good views and look out points on the way up we had to go back and see some of them with the better weather after our Kayake trip.

The Mirror Lakes - easy to see how these get their name!

Kea Parrots - one of the few of the worlds Alpine Parrots. These are very intelligent and curious birds that have no fear of people - they will come right up and take things out of your hand and are commonly seen sitting on cars picking of the window seals!!

This one was so bold it starting picking at this drivers hair as he was taking photograph's - it was very amusing.

Ok so I couldn't resist the opportuunity of one last dive before leaving New Zealand and the Milford Sounds offered an unusual diving environment as due to a fresh water layer of water sitting on top of the sea water there are opportunites to see some species of wildlife normally only found in deep water environments. And this time I was able to go with Silke so I had a diving buddy.

Some nice little fishes.....

A huge shell fish.....

One of the rare things that are found diving here is Black Coral - which in fact is these White trees - they turn black when they die and were first found when dead so hence the name. A lot of the coral trees had other coral and bits growing of it (can you tell I have a real technical knowledge of what I see underwater??).

A Biscuit Star Fish - isn't he cute.

Some other underwater life.....

These little fish were swimming hard upwards in the water....

Silke (on the right) with Alex the Dive Instructor and Daniela who was also on our dive....

After our dive we got to take a 'refreshing' shower under this waterfall.

Then we spotted some Fur Seals playing on the rocks and going diving - there were also some Bottle nose dolphins here that we saw but they were too fast for me to get any photo't this time.

Views from the boat.

An unusual flower.

The drive from Milford Sounds down to Queenstown.


So we have had another couple of busy weeks as you can see from the photo's with lots to do and see - I could easily spend another few months exploring New Zealand and lucky Silke is getting to as she is going to be here for about 9 months. But I now have just over a week left here so I have a few adventure activites that I am hoping to squeeze in before heading back to Christ Church to catch my flight home.

So I am off to make the most of it - hope you are all well and I will see some of you very soon.

Bye

Jack xx