Well, we saw some penguins in Oamaru, and they were great. We saw Yellow-Eyed Penguins, which live only in New Zealand. We drove to the coast and watched some penguins come out of the sea, then joined a tour. A guy who has been looking after the reserve for 22 years showed us two penguin nests and we got dead close to the mothers and babies. They were great. We saw them poo and everything!
We'd forgotten our cameras. On the one hand this is bad, as we missed some good photos. On the other hand though it was good, as we get annoyed by tourists who just take a zillion photos and never actually look at what they're photographing. The postcards they sell are much better photos than anything we could take. And video cameras - don't get me started on those. It baffles me who's going to watch these dull videos of scenery which is amazing to look at in person. For goodness sake, buy a souvenir book!
Mount Cook (so look as Cook doesn't mind)
On Monday we drove out to Mount Cook. This is back on the west side of the island, but the village is on the east side of the Southern Alps, so you reach it from the east coast. The South Island has a tectonic fault line running through it from Milford Sound to Kaikoura, and it's this that's given the island the spectacular mountain scenery. Anne was hoping for a small earthquake while we're here. I suggested she move to Birmingham.
Anne has a face that will stop traffic
The weather in Mount Cook was just marvelous, so we enjoyed a few walks there. At night it rained hard and the wind blew, but it cleared up during the day. The scenery was, as you'd imagine, mountains and lakes. We weren't actually climbing Mount Cook - that would be an ordeal. Sir Edmund Hilary practised on Mount Cook for his Everest ascent!
On Tuesday we did a long walk and the sun began to beat down hard soon after we left the hostel. At the end of the day we realised Anne had caught the sun and her face was bright red! It looks very funny. I said she should keep away from roads as cars may mistake her for a traffic light. They'd stop when they saw her, but then when she gets closer and they see her bright green eyes the drivers would get confused and probably stall the car or something.
I call her Dr Tomato-head. Anne thinks this is very funny and greatly appreciates the attention.
Welcome to Essex
We arrived in Timaru, on the east coast, this morning. The weather's changed and it's raining cats and dogs. Timaru looks like a British seaside town, especially in the rain. The boy-racers and scummy people make it look like Southend!
Anne and I don't mind though. To get out of the rain we went to a pub and had a $5 lunch and a beer. A really nice beer.
Our trip round the South Island seems to have gone so quickly - only three more sleeps until we fly to Auckland for our four weeks on the North Island. Yikes!